Columbia  ®nit)cr^itp 

tntljrCitpoflftDgork 

THE  LIBRARIES 


PROGRESS 


BAPTIST  PRINCIPLES 


THE  LAST  HUNDEED  YEARS. 


THOMAS   F.  CURTIS, 

PBOFESSOR     OF     THEOLOGY     IN     THE    DSIVERSITY     AT     LEWISBURG,    PA., 
AND     AUTHOR     OF     "COMMUNION,"     ETC.     ETC. 


BOSTON: 

aOULD      AND      LINCOLN, 

69     WAaHINOTON      STREET. 

NEW  YORK  :    SHELDON,  BLAKEMAN  &  CO. 

CINCINNATI :  GEO.  S.  BLANCHAKD. 

1856. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1855,  by 

GOULD    &    LINCOLN, 

tn  the  Clerk'3  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


PREFACE. 


This  volume  miglit  almost  be  called  "  Concessions 
of  Pedobaptists  as  to  tbe  Errors  of  Infant  Baptism, 
and  tbe  Importance  of  Baptist  Principles,"  Tbe  aim 
of  tbe  writer  bas  cbiefly  been  to  arrange  tbese  autbori- 
ties,  and  point  out  tbe  consequences  of  tbeir  admis- 
sions. He  bas  for  a  few  years  occasionally  noted  down 
some  of  tbe  more  striking  of  tbese  acknowledgments, 
as  be  bas  casually  met  witb  tbem  in  tbe  course  of  bis 
tbeological  reading.  Eacb  year  tbese  bave  become 
more  distinct  and  decisive,  wben  fairly  put  togetber, 
so  tbat  no  system  of  Pedobaptism  can  now  be  pro- 
duced consistent  witb  itself.  A  body  of  concessions  so 
complete  and  oveinvbelming  at  every  point,  could  not 
be  brougbt  forward  in  regard  to  any  otber  practice  yet 
maintained  by  sucb  large  bodies  of  excellent  Cbristians 
as  still  upbold  infant  baptism. 

It  would  bave  been  easy  to  double  tbe  number  of 
tbese  admissions,  and  tbe  autborities  adduced  on  every 
point.  Indeed  tbe  recollection  of  most  students  will 
at  eacb  step  suggest  several  important  additional  testi- 
monies of  a  similar  kind.     Tbe  object  of  tbe  autbor 


101094 


IV  PREFACE. 

has  been  to  select  none  but  what  were  easily  accessible, 
and  are,  or  ought  to  be,  well  known  to  every  impartial 
thinker.  To  the  writer  they  ajjpear  as  decisive  as  tes- 
timony can  be  in  regard  to  any  thing. 

If,  in  a  single  line  of  the  following  pages,  there 
should  appear  to  the  reader  the  slightest  unkind  allu- 
sion to  any  other  denomination  or  individual,  the  writer 
would  at  once  say  that  nothing  has  been  further  from 
his  intentions  or  his  feelings.  For  his  Christian  breth- 
ren of  different  denominations  he  has  ever  cherished  the 
most  fraternal  regard,  and  wishes  increasingly  to  pro- 
mote every  thing  that  may  tend  to  cultivate  and 
strengthen  this  sentiment.  But  he  is  persuaded  that 
this  is  not  to  be  done  by  diminishing  denominational 
attachments,  or  the  closeness  of  Church  ties — not  by 
an  increase  of  laxity,  but  of  love. 

His  aim  has  been  to  draw  a  wide  distinction  between 
parties  and  opinions.  Hence  the  object  of  this  volume 
is  not  to  exhibit  or  defend  the  Baptists,  but  their  prin- 
ciples. So,  on  the  other  hand,  the  author  has  not 
intentionally  made  an  unkind  allusion  to  any  Pedobap- 
tist  denomination,  or  a  single  person,  while  conscien- 
tiously maintaining  an  opposite  system. 

PniLAKELPniA,  September  1,  1855. 


CONTENTS. 


Preface 

Introduction  . 


BOOK     ONE. 

PROGRESS  OF  PRINCIPLES  NOW  CONCEDED  IN  THEORY  BY 
THE  MOST  ENLIGHTENED  OF  OTHER  DENOMINATIONS. 


CHAPTER    I. 
Opening  Remarks 15 


CHAPTER    II. 

Freedom  op  Conscience,  and  Separation  op  Church  and  State  18 
Section  I. — Earlier  Developments  op   the  Principle   op   Re- 
ligious Liberty 20 

Views  op  the  Donatists 21 

"        the  "Waldenses 21 

"        the  Menxonites 30 

"  THE   PEDOBAPTIST   REFORMED   DENOMINATIONS  31 

"        British  Baptists,  1560-1610 33 

"        Roger  Williams 37 

"        Lord  Baltimore 40 

"        William  Penn 42 

"        The  New  England  Puritans 46 


VI  CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

Section  II.— Progress  in  the  last  Hundred  Tears 47 

Example  of  Khode  Island  and  Pennsylvania 43 

Church  Establishment  in  Virginia 49 

"                    in  Massachusetts 52 

Massachusetts  Provincial  Congress 54 

Liberty  of  Conscience  in  North--5vest  Territory 56 

United  States  Constitution  Amended 56 

Influence  of  the  Principles  of  the  United  States 58 

These  Principles  in  England 58 

"               IN  Europe 59 

"               in  Turkey 59 

"               IN  China 60 

CHAPTER    III. 

A  Converted  Church  Membership 60 

Difference  between  American  and  European  Ideas CI 

Progress  among  Roman  Catholics 61 

"              Episcopalians 62 

"             German  Reformed  Churches 63 

Opinions  One  Hundred  Years  ago  in  America 64 

The  Methodists 65 

The  Presbyterians 66 

The  Congpj;gationalists 68 

Progress  in-  Europe 11 


CHxVPTER    IV. 

Sacraments  Inoperative  without  Choice  and  Faith f3 

Ordinances  Vitalized  by  Faith 74 

Sacramextalism  in  German  Reformed  Churches 74 

"                in  Episcopal  Churches 75 

"                in  Melville's  Sermons 75 

"                IN  John  Wesley 76 

"                 IN  Dr.  Nevin 77 

Views  of  the  Congregationalists 78 

Baptist  View 79 

Concessions  op  North  British  Review 80 

Admitted  Uxscripturalness  of  Infant  Baptism 81 

Infant  Baptism  the  main  reliance  of  Puseyism 83 


CONTENTS.  VU 

CHAPTER    V. 

Believess  the  only  Sceiptural  Subjects  of  Baptism 85 

Section  I. — Baptist  "VrEW  stated 86 

Section  II. — Infakt  Baptism  admitted  by  Pedobaptists  TJnscrip- 

TURAL 87 

(a.)  Sponsorship  admitted  of  no  Authority 88 

(b.)  No  Precept  or  Example  for  it 89 

(c.)   Abrahamic  Covenant  no  Authority 90 

(d.)  Household  Baptisms  no  Authority 93 

(e.)  Matthew,  xix.  14,  no  Authority 95 

(/.)  1  Cor,  vn.  14  proves  Infant  Baptism  Unknown.     96 

(g.)  Proselyte  Baptism  no  Authority 98 

Section  III. — Church  History  admitted  to  Confirm  the  above 

View 99 

(a.)  The  Cause  of  its  Silence  as  to  Infant  Baptism    99 

Gale  and  "Wall 100 

Coleridge 102 

Neander 102 

Bunsen 104 

North  British  Review 107 

(b.)  The  Catechumenical  System  Decisive 108 

AUGUSTI 114 

Bunsen 114 

Neander 116 

Apostolic  Constitution 117 

Section  IV. — The  Rise  of  Infant  Baptism  Traced  by  Pedobaptists  117 

Justin  Martyr  Ignorant  of  it 119 

Iren^us 119 

Tertullian 121 

Origen 122 

Cyprian 123 

Superstitious  Reverence  for  Ordinances 124 

Section  V. — The  Decrease  of  Infant  Baptism 128 

In  Europe 128 

Increase  of  Baptists  m  United  States 129 

Methodists  Relinquishing  Infant  Baptism 130 

Infant  Baptism  among  Episcopalians 131 

CONGREGATIONALISTS   ABANDONING   InFANT   BAPTISM 131 

Presbyterian  Decline  in  it 133 

Proportion  of  Infant  Baptisms  to  Births  in  U.  S 136 


VIU  CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER    VI. 

Immersion  altvays  the  Baptism  of  the  New  Testament 137 

Bishop  Smith  of  Kentucky 137 

Dr.  Anthon,  Dr.  Campbell,  Ecclesiastical  Historuns,  German 
Critics,  the  Greek  Church,  Roman  Catholics 138 


BOOK     TWO. 

PEOGRESS  OF  PRINCIPLES  STILL  CONTROVERTED. 

CHAPTER    I. 

The  Command  to  Baptize  a  Command  to  Immerse 141 

Section  I. — Ordinary  Meaning  of  Barrrifw 141 

Common  Usage  fixes  the  Force  of  a  Command.    Il- 
lustration   143 

Ernesti's  Rules 146 

Dr.  Pond's  Mistake 146 

Customary  Meaning  op  BanTl^u 149 

Section  II. — Force  of  the  Prepositions 152 

Meanings  of  "in"  and  " into" 152 

cic  AND  Professor  Stuart's  Rule 153 

iv 156 

Section  III  — Circumstances 159 

(a.)  Objections,   Accommodations   for  Immersion  at 

Jerusalem 160 

Time  required  for  Immersion 161 

Baptism  of  the  Jailor 163 

(h.)  Circumstances  requiring  Immersion 164 

Section  I"V. — Figurative  Allusions  to  B.uptism 166 

1  Corinthians,  x.  2 166 

1  Peter,  hl  20,  21 167 

Hebrews,  x.  22 168 

Luke,  xn.  50 168 

Romans,  vi.  4 169 


CONTENTS.  IX 

PAGE 

Section  V. — Historical  View 171 

Section  VI. — BawTi^u  always  involves  Immersion 175 

Proper  and  Tropical  Use  op  Words 175 

(a.)  Classical  Usage 177 

(b)  New  Testament  Usage 183 

as  to  the  Baptismal  Eite 185 

IN  the  two  other  cases 187 

IN  the  three  cases  op  BaTTTiafiog 192 

(c.)  Septuagint  Usage 195 

(d)  Usage  in  the  Apocrypha 196 

Concluding  Illustration 200 


CHAPTER    II. 

The  Importance  op  Believer's  Baptism 202 

Section  I. — General  Remarks 202 

Clinic  Baptism 206 

Section  II. — The  Teachings  of  Baptism 209 

(a.)  Submission  to  the  Religion  op  New  Testament.  .  209 

Conversion  of  a  French  Infidel 209 

(6.)  Allegiance  to  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  213 

(c.)  The  Outlines  of  the  Evangelical  System 

Baptism  op  a  Universalis! 218 

Section  III. — The  Pledges  made  in  Baptism 221 

{a.)  Separation  from  the  World 221 

(6.)  Open  Avowal  of  Religious  Principle 222 

(c.)  The  Pledge  Reciprocal  and  Divine 223 

(d.)  Embracing  a  Glorious  Resurrection. 223 

Section  IV. — Baptism  Important  for  its  Effects 226 

The  Church  a  Light-house 229 


CHAPTER    III. 

Infant  Baptism  Injurious — its  Modern  Defenses  Considep^d.  233 
Section  I. — Coleridge's  Defense  of  Infant  Baptism 234 

Discretionary  Power  of  the  Church.  . . .......  235 

1  * 


X  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

What  is  "  the  Church  ?" 236 

Infant  Baptism  a  Change  of  the  Constitution 239 

Constitution  of  Episcopal  Chukch 240 

Purposes  at  first  Blended 242 

Intolerable  View  of  God 245 

Section  II. — Dr.  Bushnell's  Defense  of  it  Considered 246 

No  settled  Congregational  Theory 247 

Evangelical  Church  all  Baptist  in  Theory 248 

Edward's  Theory  Misunderstood 250 

Dr.  Bushnell's  Theory — Organic  Connection 253 

The  Baptist  Theory — Sensible  Experience 254 

Presumptions  of  Infant  Baptism 256 

Dr.  Bushnell's  History  of  Theories 259 

"Dangerous  Tendencies" 262 

Baptist  Theory  more  Natural 267 

Section  ni. — Chevalier  Bunsen's  Defense 270 

Reforming  the  Bible 271 

The  Ratification  op  a  Nullity 274 

Section  IV. — North  British  Review 282 

Reforming  Biblical  Interpretation 284 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Open  Communion  Unwise  and  Injurious 285 

Dr.  Bunsen's  Idea 286 

Coincides  with  R.  Hall 287 

History  of  the  Question  in  England 288 

"  "  "         IN  THIS  Country 290 

Its  present  Practical  Aspect 291 

Views  of  other  Denominations 293 

Inexpedlent 294 

A  Breach  of  Trust 296 

The  Ordinances  Committed  to  the  Churches 297 

Not  to  a  Visible  Church  Universal 301 

Voluntary  Alliances  not  Churches 305 

Churches  the  sole  Guardians 307 

"  Aggressive  Bodies 307 

"  MUST,  THEEEFORB,  BE  UNITED 308 


CONTENTS.  XJ 

BOOK    THREE. 

PKOGRESS  OF  PRINCIPLES  ALWAYS  HELD  BY  EVANGEL- 
ICAL CHRISTIANS,  BUT  MORE  CONSISTENTLY  BY  BAP- 
TISTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 


PAOE 


The  Sufpicienot  op  Holt  Scripture 312 

Position  op  other  Denominations 313 

Of  the  Baptists 318 

Effects  as  to  Missions 319 

In  the  Translation  and  Circulation  op  the  Bible 325 


CHAPTER    II. 
Salvation  bt  Grace  alone 329 

CHAPTER    III. 

The  Essential  Priesthood  op  all  Christians 336 

CHAPTER    IV. 

Connection  of  Baptist  Principles  and  Political  Liberty 347 

CONCLUDING    CHAPTER. 

Summary  of  the  foregoing  "Work 365 

Reasons  why  it  is  Written 366 

(1.)  Due  to  Historical  Truth 367 

(2.)  Modern  Attacks  on  Evangelical  Christianity 368 

(3.)  The  Difficulties  of  Evangelical  Pedobaptists 369 

(4-.)  The  Condition  of  the  Baptists 374 

(5.)  The  Relative  Positions  and  Approaches  of  Parties.  .  380 


XU  CONTENTS, 


APPENDIX    A. 


PAGE 


Statistics  of  the  Presbyterian  Chubch 387 

APPENDIX    B. 
Professor  Hodge's  Wat  op  Life 388 

APPENDIX    0. 

On  the  Force  of  the  Dative  and  Prepositions  in  Connection 

with  BaTTTL^u 390 

APPENDIX    D. 
On  Romans,  vi.  4,  and  Colossians,  il  12 396 

APPENDIX    E. 
The  Misconceptions  of  Open  Communion 401 

APPENDIX    F. 
Robert  Hall  on  the  American  "War  of  Independence 409 


INTRODUCTION. 


By  many  persons,  Baptists,  are  supposed  to  differ  from 
other  evangelical  Christians  merely  in  relation  to  two 
points  of  a  single  rite — the  form  and  time  of  baptism. 
Hence,  even  where  believed  to  be  coi'rect  in  their  opin- 
ions, they  are  supposed  to  be  wrong  in  spirit,  lacking  in 
charity,  building  up  a  sect  upon  a  ceremony,  and  mak- 
ing every  other  Christian  "  an  offender  for  a  word." 

Those  who  have  fairly  examined  their  history,  how- 
ever, will  have  observed  that  they  have  uniformly  main- 
tained a  body  of  principles  of  which  then*  baptism  has 
been  merely  the  appointed  symbol.  Some  of  these  they 
have  held  alone,  and  others  frequently  in  common  with 
Christians  of  different  denominations. 


XIV  INTRODUCTION, 

The  present  work  is  mtended  to  trace  out  the  ivt'O- 
gress  of  J3aptist  2>nnci'ples  durino  the  last  hundred  years^ 
their  coherence  and  consistency. 

These  principles  may  be  divided  into  three  classes. 

I.  Those  which  have  been  by  degrees  conceded  in 
theory  by  many  of  the  most  enlightened  of  other  de- 
nominations. 

n.  Those  which  form  the  remaining  pomts  still  con- 
troverted. 

III.  Those  which,  though  always  held  in  common  by 
evangelical  Christians,  require  the  acknowledgment  of 
Baptist  principles,  to  be  advocated  with  due  force  and 
consistency. 


BOOK  I. 

CONCEDED    PRINCIPLES. 

Mantt  of  the  most  important  facts  and  principles  as- 
serted by  the  Baptists,  have,  within  the  last  himdred  years, 
by  degrees  been  fully  conceded  in  theory  by  several  of  the 
"svdsest  and  best  of  other  denominations. 

These  "will  be  found  to  form  such  a  basis  of  concessions 
as  to  leave  it  impossible  that  opposite  principles  should  long 
survive  among  enlightened  evangelical  Christians.  They 
embrace, 

1.  Freedom  of  Conscience,  and  the  entii'e  separation  of 
Church  and  State. 

2.  A  Converted  Church  Membership. 

3.  Sacraments  inoperative  withou.t  Choice  and  Faith. 

4.  Believers  the  only  Scriptural  Subjects  of  Baptism. 

5.  Immersion  always  the  Baptism  of  the  New  Testament. 


CHAPTEE  I. 

OPENING     REMARKS. 


A  Pedobaptist  gentleman  in  Philadelphia  has  for  some 
years  been  making  a  collection  of  all  works  on  the  Baptis- 
mal Controversy.    He  has  already  obtained  more  than  four- 


16  OPENING    EEMAEKS. 

teen  hundi'ed  volumes  in  tlae  English  language  alone,  which 
he  i^roftoses  to  arrange  chronologically,  and  to  j^resent  to 
the  Ubrary  of  Princeton  Theological  Seminary.  In  examin- 
ing this  collection,  two  things  are  specially  noticeable :  that 
this  controversy  has  of  late  years  been  conducted  in  a  far 
more  Christian  spirit,  and  that  the  points  of  difierence  are 
greatly  narrowed  down. 

Two  hundred  years  ago,  when  Dr.  Featley  published  his 
"  Dippers  Dipped,  or  the  Anabaptists  Ducked  and  Plimged 
Head  over  Ears,"  the  oi^ponents  of  Baptist  \T.ews  complained 
on  exactly  the  opj^osite  grounds  from  what  they  do  now,  re- 
garding them  as  so  radicaUy  different  that  they  could  not 
safely  be  even  tolerated.  There  seemed  to  them  something 
that  cut  at  the  root  of  all  Christianity,  in  contending  for 
liberty  of  conscience,  denying  baptism  to  infants,  and  call- 
ing m  question  the  utihty  of  a  vicarious  faith  by  sponsors 
and  parents.  Fines,  fetters,  and  banishment  alone  appeared 
the  suitable  reward  for  such  oj^inions.  Now,  on  the  con- 
trary, it  is  the  chief  complaint  of  evangehcal  Pedobaptists 
that  the  difference  is  so  imimportant  as  not  to  justify  Bap- 
tists in  maintaining  their  pecuHarities  as  a  distinct  denomi- 
nation. A  great  change  has  taken  place  among  Protestants 
generally,  and  evangelical  Protestants  esiDeciaUy.  Time  has 
killed  many  of  their  errors,  and  more  of  their  prejudices. 
No  one  knows  where  they  have  gone,  or  how  they  have 
evaporated.  ChevaHer  Bunsen,'  for  instance,  "  does  not 
see  for  what  good  internal  reason  the  Baptists,  as  such, 
can  be  excluded  from  a  National  Church,  Those  who  give 
a  preference  to  adult  baptism  *  *  *  should  no  more  be 
looked  ujion  as  heretics  on  that  account  than  Baptists  on 
their  part  should  stigmatize  by  that  name  such  congrega- 
1  Hippolytus,  vol  iiL  p.  215. 


OPENIXG    REMARKS.  17 

tions  as  have  a  preference  for  infant  baptism."  Disbeliev- 
ing in  a  National  Church,  Baptists  may  not  be  able  to  see 
the  advantage  of  suddenly  domg  away  distmctions  that 
have  so  long  been  matters  of  historical  fact  and  growth ; 
but  they  earnestly  desire  to  see  all  those  who  love  the 
Saviour  united  in  heart,  and  loving  each  other  as  fellow- 
heirs  of  eternal  life. 

The  degree  to  which  the  points  of  this  controversy  have 
naiTowed  down  is  still  more  remarkable.  It  has  only  been 
by  slow  stages  that  those  evangeUcal  truths  which  were 
the  essence  of  the  Reformation,  however  sincerely  held  by 
a  few  of  the  more  prominent  Reformers,  penetrated  into 
the  religious  life  of  the  masses,  or  have  been  carried  out  to 
their  legituuate  results.  In  many  cases  there  was  at  first 
but  a  chaos  of  confused  principles.  Often  where  the  heart 
was  evangehcal,  m.any  of  the  remains  of  Popery  hung  about 
it,  as  a  fog  "svill  linger  on  the  surface  of  the  Avaters,  while  at 
a  little  elevation  all  is  clear.  It  may  not  impede  the  current 
or  the  tide,  or  the  motion  of  the  vessels  borne  upon  the 
surface,  but  prevents  the  navigators  from  seeing  where  they 
are  going,  or  pursuing  an  undeviating  course  with  certamty 
and  safety.  The  clearness  and  consistency  of  Baptist  prin- 
ciples have  enabled  those  who  have  held  them  to  penetrate 
these  vapors  with  precision  and  ease,  as  a  ship  guided  by  a 
well-adjusted  compass  sails  through  a  mist  at  sea.  But  then 
the  directness  with  which  they  have  advanced  to  their 
point  has  seemed  to  others  not  only  dangerous  to  them,  but 
to  aU  around.  By  degrees  these  fogs  have  been  clearing 
away.  Vast  multitudes  of  the  most  pious  men  of  the  age, 
many  of  them  Pedobaptists  in  name,  have  become  what 
Dr.  BushneU  calls  "  Baptists  in  theory,"  to  such  an  extent 
that  they  ought,  as  he  admits,  in  all  consistency  to  become 


18  FEEEDOM     OF    COXSCIEXCE. 

SO  in  practice.  A  careful  examinatiou  "will  ftilly  show  that 
there  is  a  series  of  principles  of  which  the  Baptist  denomi- 
nation alone  has  been  tlie  consistent  and  uniform  advocate ; 
principles  of  the  utmost  importance  to  vital  religion,  and 
now  admitted  and  contended  for  by  none  more  strenuoiisly 
than  those  who  haA'e  most  opposed  this  denomination  m 
name.  There  is  nothing  which  will  be  more  Ukely  to  sur- 
prise the  student  of  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  this  country, 
than  to  notice  that  many  of  the  points  which  were  in  dispute 
a  hundred  years  ago,  and  which  Avere  originally  regarded 
as  Baptist  peculiarities,  have  become  estabhshed  jirinciples 
of  the  great  unwiitten  creed — the  general  rehgious  senti- 
ment of  the  whole  country — the  common  law,  so  to  speak, 
of  American  Christianity.  It  is  probable  that  when  some 
of  them  are  named,  the  only  astonishment  and  difficulty 
with  many  readers  wiU  be  to  realize  that  these  things  ever 
were  disputed  or  even  doubted.  As  a  first  illustration  of 
this,  we  may  name  Freedom  of  Conscience, 


CHAPTER  II. 

FEEEDOM    OF    COXSCrEXCE,    AKD    THE   PERFECT    SEPARATION    OP 
CHURCH    AXD    STATE. 

Two  points  which,  superficially  viewed,  may  seem  distinct, 
are  here  connected  together,  because  they  wiU  be  foimd  to 
resolve  themselves  essentially  into  one  great  principle.  The 
utmost  distmction  is,  that  the  union  of  Church  and  State 
puts  a  premium  upon  one  form  of  religion,  while  all  other 
opposition  to  freedom  of  conscience  j^laces  a  penalty  upon 
another.     But  as  in  the  former  case  the  Chm'ch  which  is 


THE     DONATISTS.  19 

established  receives  a  premium  from  the  dissenter,  its  union 
with  the  State  involves,  in  fact,  a  stigma,  a  penalty  on  all 
other  forms  of  worship,  and  this  bemg  compulsory,  is  per- 
secution. Freedom  of  conscience  can  not  be  fully  and 
fau'ly  predicated  where  any  penalty  is  attached  to  its  ex- 
ercise. 

Of  the  millions  of  all  denominations  in  this  coimtry,  who 
now  enjoy  so  perfectly  as  we  do  the  inestimable  blessing 
of  religious  liberty,  and  of  all  those  who  throughout  Europe 
and  the  world  are  advocathig  it  in  various  degrees,  few  are 
aware  how  much  they  are  indebted  for  these  views  and 
enjoyments  to  the  Baptists ;  fewer  still  know  that  this 
indebtedness,  such  as  it  is,  is  not  mere  accident,  biit  a  neces- 
sary consequence  of  their  distinctive  pecuharities  as  a  de- 
nomination. They  may  probably  have  learned  from  Ban- 
croft that  Roger  Williams  was  the  first  Christian  legislator 
who  introduced  perfect  rehgious  liberty  into  the  constitution 
of  any  State,  but  are  not  aware,  perhaps,  that  these  views 
were  advocated  pubhcly  in  London  by  the  Baptists,  with 
great  zeal,  a  few  years  before  he  came  to  this  coimtry.  Or 
if  prepared  to  go  so  far,  they  are  probably  ignorant  that 
the  advocacy  of  this  spiiitual  freedom  is  to  be  traced  in 
connection  with  Baptist  sentiments,  long  before  the  time  of 
Luther,  among  the  Waldenses,  and  through  such  men  as 
Arnold  of  Brescia,  Peter  de  Bruis,  and  the  Henricians,  back 
probably  to  the  Donatists,  and  the  time  of  Constantme  the 
Great. 

Before,  then,  commencing  to  trace  the  progress  of  these 
views  during  the  jiast  century,  it  Tvdll  be  necessary  in  this 
instance  to  give  a  rapid  sketch  of  their  previous  history,  in 
order  to  show  how  far  they  may  be  fau'ly  and  justly  claimed 
as  distinctively  Baptist  principles. 


20  THE     DONATISTS. 

§  I.    Early  Developjiext  of  the  Principle  of  Religious  Liberty. 

Previous  to  about  the  time  of  Constantine,  there  could, 
of  course,  be  no  controversy  on  this  subject.  The  Greeks 
and  Romans,  though  generally  tolerant  of  the  religion  of 
others,  and  not  attemptuig  to  change  the  faith  of  any  con- 
quered State,  never  doubted  the  right  of  government  to 
interfere,  or  the  wisdom  of  the  exercise  of  this  right  on 
occasions.  Thus  Socrates  was  condemned  to  the  cup  of 
hemlock,  on  the  charge  of  alienating  the  minds  of  the  young 
from  the  religion  of  the  State,  and  it  is  pamful  to  note  the 
indifterence  ^^-ith  winch  the  mild  and  philosophic  Pliny  -RTites 
to  the  Emperor  Trajan  of  the  cruel  and  extensive  punish- 
ments he  thought  proper  to  mflict  upon  the  "harmless" 
early  Christians.  Until  the  time  of  the  first  so-called  Chris- 
tian emperor,  therefore,  these  men  were  often  j^ersecuted, 
but  never  had  possessed  the  power  of  the  State  on  their 
side,  either  for  persecution  or  for  2:)atronage.  But  no  sooner 
was  Christianity  the  reUgion  of  the  State,  and  its  powers 
employed  in  crushing  the  Donatists,  than  the  rights  of  con- 
science were  asserted  by  the  oppressed  minority  with  great 
eloquence  and  jjower.  In  this  respect,  Neander  considers 
it  "  the  most  important  and  influential  Church  division  of 
this  period."  "  That  which  distmguishes  the  present  case  is," 
lie  says,  "  the  reaction  proceedhig  out  of  the  essence  of  the 
Christian  Church  against  the  confoimding  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical and  political  elements,  on  which  occasion,  for  the  first 
time,  the  ideas  Avhich  Christianity,  as  opposed  to  the  pagan 
religion  of  tlie  State,  had  first  made  men  distinctly  con- 
scious of,  became  an  object  of  contention  withm  the  State 
itself,  the  ideas  concerning  universal  inalienable  human 


THE    DONATISTS.  21 

rights^  concerning  liberty  of  conscience.^   concerning  the 
rights  of  free  religious  convictiony^ 

The  election  of  a  cliurch  officer  was  tlie  accidental  occa- 
sion of  this  rupture.  But  when  the  emperor  compiled  "  an- 
other more  important  matter,  the  employment  of  force  in 
matters  of  religion"  evoked  a  spirit  long  existing,  and  a 
zeal  that  force  could  not  subdue.  "  Christ  persecutes  no 
one ;  he  was  for  inviting,  not  forcing  men  to  the  faith. 
Why  do  you  not  permit  every  man  to  follow  his  own  free 
"will?  Christ  in  dying  for  men  has  given  Christians  the 
example  to  die,  but  not  to  kill."  Such  was  the  language 
of  the  Donatist  bishop,  Petihan.  The  Catholics,  on  the 
other  hand,  "with  Augustine  at  their  head,  argued  that "  men 
were  authorized  and  bound  to  employ  force,"  and  compel 
men  to  enter  the  visible  Chm'ch,  from  Luke  xiv.  23. 

Such  was  the  commencement  of  a  controversy  contmued 
to  this  day.  In  many  of  the  incidental  circvmistances  of 
the  quarrel,  the  Donatists  may  have  been  wrong,  and  were 
wrong,  because  they  were  but  men,  but  in  the  great  prin- 
ciples which  remained  with  them,  of  opposition  to  the 
Cathohcs  sweepmg  the  world  into  the  Church,'^  and  compell- 
ing the  consciences  of  men,  they  were  right,  and  the  means 
of  exhibiting  an  important  part  of  Christian  truth  and 
Church  life. 

God  chooses  his  people  in  the  fires  of  affliction,  and  he 
purifies  them  there.  These  Donatists,  joined  gradually  by 
other  sects  who  broke  oif  from  the  Catholics  in  search  of  a 
purer  fiuth,  seemed  to  have  formed  the  germ  of  the  Wal- 
denses.  This  alone  accomits  for  the  tradition  ever  faithfully 
maintained  by  them  and  acknowledged  by  their  enemies, 

1  History  of  the  Cliristian  Religion  and  Church,  vol.  ii.  p.  182-217. 
Torrey.  •  Neander,  vol.  ii.  p.  205,  6. 


22  THE    DONATISTS. 

that  they  had  maintamed  a  distuact  existence  from  the  time 
of  Pope  Sylvester,  the  tune  when,  under  Constantine,  the 
imion  between  Church  and  State  was  completely  eifected, 
Neander  considers  this  "  the  true  historical  origin  of  the 
sect"  of  the  Waldenses,'  and  there  is  every  reason  to  feel 
assured  of  the  truth  of  this  opinion.  It  was  universally 
acknowledged  among  them.  Reinerius  Saccho,  who  had 
the  best  means  of  kuowmg,  havmg  been  for  seventeen  years 
one  of  them,  but  not  writing  until  he  became  a  Catholic 
Inquisitor,  a.d.  1250,  states  this  fact,  and  adds  that  their 
xmiversal  extension  and  high  antiquity  make  them  the 
most  dangerous  enemies  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

There  is  stUl  extant  among  the  remains  left  by  these  most 
ancient  Protestants,  a  Treatise  on  Antichrist,  which  is  an 
authentic  exposition  of  their  faith.  It  is  generally  consid- 
ered to  have  been  written  about  a.d.  1120,  but  ISTeander 
thinks  it  may  have  been  much  older.^  It  thus  describes 
Antichrist :  "  He  arrived  at  maturity  when  men  whose 
hearts  were  set  upon  the  world  multiphed  in  the  Church, 
and  hy  the  union  of  Church  and  State  got  the  power  of 
both  into  their  hands.  *  *  *  *  He  teaches  to  baptize 
children  into  the  faith,  and  attribiTtes  to  this  the  woi'k  of 
regeneration,  thus  confoimding  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spii-it 
in  regeneration  with  the  external  rite  of  baptism,  and  on 
this  foundation  bestows  orders,  and  indeed  groimds  all  liis 
Christianity." ' 

The  reactionary  spirit  against  the  corruptions  of  the  State 
Church,  appears  in  this  extract  to  have  given  clearness  to 

*  Church  History,  voL  iv.  p.  605,  and  notes.  2  Yo\.  \y.  p.  605. 

3  Jones'  Church  History,  p.  338,  whose  quotations  I  have  followed,  }ie 
having  gone  over  the  whole  ground  carefully,  with  Wall  and  Perrin  before 
him. 


THE    DONATISTS.  23 

the  pious  autliors  of  this  Treatise.  It  is  the  benefit  which 
the  presence  of  error  occasions  to  the  Church,  that  it  pro- 
duces in  contrast  a  faith  more  sharply  defined,  exact,  and 
clear.  When  the  Donatists  first  broke  loose  from  the  Cath- 
ohcs,  they  saw  the  corruption  of  then*  opponents  to  such  a 
degree  that  they  re-baptized  all  who  came  over  to  them 
from  the  Romish  party.  But  they  did  not  then  define  and 
trace  out  so  clearly  the  origin  and  prmciples  of  Romish 
errors,  as  after  long  observation.  At  the  tune  Avhen  the 
Donatist  secession  finally  and  fuUy  seems  to  have  occurred, 
the  tune  of  Sylvester,  about  a.d,  330,  and  for  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  after,  infant  baptism  according  to  Neander, 
"  entered  rarely  and  with  difficulty  into  the  life  of  the 
Churchy  It  had  not  become  the  universal  or  even  the 
usual  practice,' 

On  this  account  at  fii-st  there  is  httle  distinction  recorded 
between  the  Cathohcs  and  the  Donatists  in  regard  to  this 
pomt.  The  latter  were  soon  known  universally  as  Anabap- 
tists in  the  views  of  then*  opponents,  because  they  de- 
nied the  validity  of  the  Cathohc  baptism,  and  repeated  it, 
generally,  adhering  to  a  primitive  exclusiveness  in  its  admin- 
istration,^ The  repetition  was  on  accomit  of  the  general 
worldhness  and  corruption  of  that  Church,  but  specific  at- 
tention had  not  then  been  turned  to  many  of  the  errors 
in  detail.  It  is  even  probable  that  individual  cases  of  infant 
baptism  may  have  existed  among  the  earlier  Donatists.  But 
the  Christian  consciovisness  of  a  Divine  life  awakened  y\A\h- 
in,  tended  always  to  the  purity  of  the  Church,  operating 
with  a  reactive  force  agamst  the  errors  of  the  Cathohcs, 
and  must  have  prevented  this  error  from  spreadhag  far,  while 
it  eventually  woke  up  against  them  many  an  indignant  re- 

i  Vol.  ii.  p,  319.  2  Hase'a  Church  History,  sec,  142, 


24  ARNOLD    OF    BRESCIA. 

monstrance  like  the  above  from  the  Treatise  on  Anti- 
christ. 

From  this  time  forward  we  shall  find,  in  connection  with 
the  warmest  defenses  of  liberty  of  conscience,  the  most 
solemn  protests  against  infant  baptism.  The  Petrobrus- 
sians  (a.d,  1110)  and  the  Henricians  (a.d.  1140)  both  be- 
came extensive  sects  earnestly  opposed  to  the  worldliness 
of  the  clergy  and  to  mfaut  baptism.' 

Arnold  of  Brescia  about  this  time,  a.d.  1136-57,  main- 
tained the  same  views,  but  with  a  greater  vigor  and  imme- 
diate political  effect  and  distmctness  than  any  of  his  prede- 
cessors or  cotemporaries.  Liberty,  sacred  and  secular, 
was  the  great  object  of  his  hfe.  He  produced  an  immense 
effect  upon  Europe  and  his  age,  and  gave  an  impulse  to 
those  reformmg  movements  m  the  Church  of  Rome  that 
are  distinctly  traceable  as  the  germs  from  which,  four  hun- 
dred years  later,  sprang  the  great  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion.^ 

This  remarkable  reformer  on  returning  home  to  Bres- 
cia, his  native  city,  was  observed  to  have  midergone  a 
change.  "  The  inspiring  idea  of  his  movements,"  says  Ne- 
ander,  "  was  that  of  a  holy  and  a  pure  Church.  His  Ufe  cor- 
resjDonded  with  his  doctrme.  Zealously  opposing  the  cor- 
ruption of  the  worldly-minded  clergy,  he  set  the  examj^le 
himself  by  his  dress  and  his  entire  mode  of  living — a  fact 
which  even  his  most  violent  enemies  could  but  acknowledge." 

This  was  the  young  clergyman  "  who  gave  the  first  im- 
pulse to  the  new  reaction  agamst  the  secularization  of  the 
clergy  and  agamst  the  power  of  the  Pope  in  temporal  things." 
Impressed  with  holy  fervor  imder  the  lectures  of  the  cele- 
brated Abelard,  he  put  hunself  at  the  head  of  a  party  "  in 

•  Neander,  vol.  iv.  p.  595.  2  Ibid.,  p.  147,  162,  180. 


AEKOLD   OF   BRESCIA.  25 

opposition  to  the  practice  of  mixing  up  tilings  spriritual 
and  secular."  He  required  that  the  bishops  should  abjure 
their  princely  powers,  and  that  the  clergy  should  be  content 
■\vith  whatever  the  love  of  the  conimunities  might  bestow 
on  them  for  their  support.  Pie  was  disposed  to  make  much 
depend  on  experimental  religion,  or  "  the  subjective  char- 
acter of  the  men"  who  officiated  in  church  matters.  In 
fact,  the  great  object  at  which  he  aimed  was  a  Spiritual 
Church,  and  one  chief  method  of  accomplishing  it  was  to 
be  its  entu-e  sej)aration  fi-om  the  State,  while  the  baptism 
of  adults  only  was  another. 

As  Dr.  Brewster  says,^  "  Insisting  that  the  Kingdom  of 
God  is  not  of  this  world,  he  maintained  that  the  temporal 
power  of  the  Church  was  an  unprincipled  usurpation  of  the 
rights  of  princes,  and  that  all  the  corrujDtions  which  dis- 
graced the  Christian  faith,  and  all  the  animosities  which 
distracted  the  Church,  sprang  from  the  overgro"mi  pos- 
sessions of  the  clergy."  He  commenced  hi  his  native  city, 
but  it  was  in  Rome  itself  that  the  amazing  j^ower  of  tliis 
man  and  of  his  prmciples  were  chiefly  succesful.  He  re- 
stored the  Roman  Republic,  and  maintained  it  for  ten  years. 
Four  Pojies  successively  driven  from  the  Eternal  City,  tried 
in  vain  to  subdue  him.  At  last  when  Frederick  Barba- 
rossa,  hu-ed  for  that  purpose,  had  succeeded  in  capturmg 
him,  so  fearful  of  liis  popularity  were  those  in  power,  that 
having  strangled  Mm  in  prison,  his  body  was  burned  and 
his  ashes  thrown  into  the  Tiber,  lest  the  people  should  idol- 
ize his  beloved  remains. 

The  same  desire  for  the  purity  of  the  Church  which 
in  one  direction  led  him  to  oppose  the  mixing  up  of  tem- 
poral power,  in  another  direction  brought  him  in  opppsi- 
*  Edinburg  Encyclopffidia,  Art.  Arnold, 

2 


26  THE    WALDENSES. 

tion  to  inftyit  baptism.  A  cotemj^orary  of  his  remarks 
that  "  he  is  said  to  have  jiidgecl  erroneously  ui  regard  to 
the  sacrament  of  the  altar  [/,  e.  transuhstantiation],  and 
the  baptism  of  mfants." '  Everviniis  and  Bernard,  also  his 
opponents,  both  appear  to  allude  to  hun  as  ridicuhng  mfant 
baptism,  while  in  a  Bull  issued  in  1181,  the  Arnoldists  are 
included  in  the  category  of  sects  "  not  afi-aid  to  oppose  the 
doctrmes  of  the  Church  on  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per." Indeed,  Arnold  was  condemned  by  Pope  Innocent 
II.,  in  the  Lateran  Council  of  1139,  as  an  opponent  of 
infant  baptism.  Dr.  Murdoch,  the  translator  of  Mosheim, 
seems  inclined  to  doubt  if  he  is  alluded  to  in  the  decrees 
of  that  council,  because  he  is  not  mentioned  by  name.  But 
a  cotemporary  wi-iter.  Otto  Bishop  Freysingen,  expressly 
declares  that  he  and  the  Petrobrussians  were  both  con- 
demned by  that  council,  and  his  authority  in  this  matter  is 
justly  regarded  as  decisive  by  Mosheuu,  Giesler,  and  Ne- 
ander.  Though  the  man  was  slain,  his  followers  long  sur- 
Anved  as  a  distinct  sect,  and  by  such  leaders,  recruits  were 
added,  and  other  bodies  of  Christians  were  gradually  dra^vn 
together  by  an  inward  principle  and  driven  together  by 
common  persecutions,  until  mider  the  name  Waldenses 
several  sects,  dissimilar  in  many  of  their  opinions  though 
united  in  common  Evangelical  principles,  continued  to  be 
known  for  centuries  as  the  friends  of  spiritual  liberty. 

To  what  extent  they  re^jected  mfant  baptism  has  long 
been  a  matter  of  dispute.  That  many  of  them  did.  so  is 
beyond  question.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  that  some  of 
the  sects  who  went  under  this  general  name  continued  to 
practice  it,  we  do  not  doubt.  But  Limborch,  whose  ac- 
count of  them  Wall  endorses  as  the  most  accurate  and  dis- 
'  See  Giesler,  vol.  ii.  sec.  51,  note  6. 


THE   WALD"ENSES.  27 

criminating/  says  "  To  speak  my  own  mind  freely,  the  Al- 
bigenses  and  Waldenses  appear  to  me  to  have  been  two  dis- 
tinct sects,  and  they  were  entirely  ignorant  of  many  tenets 
now  ascribed  to  them.  Particularly  the  Waldenses  appear 
to  have  been  plain  men,  unskillful  and  uiexperienced,  and 
if  their  opinions  and  customs  loere  to  be  examined  without 
prejudice^  it  would  appear  that  among  all  the  modern  sects 
of  Christians  they  bear  the  greatest  resemblance  to  that  of 
the  Mennonites,"  or  modern  Dutch  Baptists.''  This  author 
gives  the  acknowledgment  of  an  Albigensian  nobleman,  on 
which  he  Avas  condemned,  that  he  had  listened  to  one  of  the 
more  distinguished  of  their  teachers,  Peter  Auterii  (about 
A.D.  1300),  preaching  that  the  baptism  of  water,  made  by 
the  Church,  was  of  no  avail  to  children,  who  were  so  far 
from  consenting  to  it  that  they  wept.  He  also  cites  the 
sentence  of  the  Inquisition  on  Stej)hana  di  Proando  for  de- 
nying, among  other  things,  "  baptism  of  water  administered 
to  children."  Yet  it  is  clear  that  they  did  not,  as  often 
supposed,  deny  all  water  baptism,  but  only  its  being  essen- 
tial to  salvation,  or  useful  to  infants,  for  another  witness  is 
also  cited  saving  that  "  no  baptism  availed  any  thing,  no 
not  their  own?''  ^ 

M:  de  Potter,  in  his  Ecclesiastical  History,  says  that  "  they 
opposed  the  sacraments,  rejecting  all  the  ceremonies  of  bap- 
tism except  the  ablution,  and  they  had  care  that  this  should 
never  be  conferred  on  children  of  a  tender  age  ;  and  it  is 
for  that  reason  they  used  to  baptize  anew  all  the  persons 
who,  leaving  the  Romish  Church,  claimed  to  embrace  their 
doctrines."  ■• 

*  Infant  Baptism,  vol.  ii.  p.  230. 

2  History  of  the  Inquisition,  vol.  i.  chap.  viii.  ^  Ibid.^  chap.  viii. 

4  See  Hague's  Centenary  Address,  Appendix,  p.  T7. 


28  THE   WALDE2fSES. 

What  is  more  remarkable  thau  general  statements  of  this 
kind,  and  more  imjDortant  to  our  present  piirpose,  is  that 
the  strongest  expressions  in  favor  of  liberty  of  conscience 
are  fomid  in  the  mouths  of  those  who  also  opposed  infant 
baptism.  This  we  have  already  noticed,  as  well  as  the  cause 
of  it,  in  the  case  of  Ai-nold  of  Brescia  and  the  Dissertation 
on  Antichrist. 

There  is  an  epitome  of  the  faith  of  the  Waldenses  of  the 
twelfth  centmy,  given  by  the  Centiiriators  of  Magdeburg, 
which  does  not  say  any  thing  about  infant  baptism  one 
way  or  other,  but  asserts  "  the  Pope  hath  not  the  primacy 
over  all  the  Churches  of  Christ,  neither  hath  he  the  power 
of  both  swords.'''  But  another  full  confession  of  their  faith 
of  the  same  century  (a.d.  1120),  says,  "We  hold  in  ab- 
horrence all  human  inventions,  as  proceeding  from  Anti- 
christ, which  produce  distress  and  are  prejudicial  to  the 
liberty  of  the  onind.  We  consider  the  Sacraments  as  signs 
of  holy  thmgs,  or  as  the  visible  emblems  of  invisible  bless- 
ings. We  regard  it  as  proper  and  even  necessary  that  be- 
lievers  use  these  spnbols  or  visible  forms  when  it  can  be 
done.  Xotwithstandhig  we  maintain  that  believers  may 
be  saved  -without  these  signs  when  they  have  neit?lier  place 
nor  opportunity  of  observing  them."  ^ 

The  testimony  of  an  enemy  is  unportant  here,  ^neas 
Syhdus,  afterward  Pope  Pius  II.  (a.d.  1458),  in  his  His- 
tory of  Bohemia,  gives  this  account  of  the  Waldenscs. 
He  says,  "  they  assert  that  the  Church  of  Rome  ceased  to 
be  the  true  Church  from  the  time  of  Pope  Sylvester,  at 
which  time  the  poison  of  temporal  advantages  was  cast  into 
the  Church,  *  *  *  They  reject  all  the  titles  of  prelates, 
as  pope,  bishop,  &c.  They  affirm  that  no  man  ovight  to  be 
1  Jones,  p.  333. 


THE   WALDEXSES.  29 

forcibly  compelled  ill  matters  of  faith.  *  *  *  They  con- 
demn all  the  Sacraments  of  the  Church.  Concerning  the 
sacrament  of  baptism  they  say  that  the  Catechism  signifies 
nothing,  tliat  the  absolution  pronounced  over  mfants  avails 
them  nothing — tliat  the  godlathers  and  godmothers  do  not 
understand  what  they  answer  the  priest." ' 

In  1540  the  Parliament  of  Aix  passed  a  law  that  the  Wal- 
denses  residing  in  Provence,  and  who  were  the  subjects  of 
the  French  Kmg,  "  should  all  be  destroyed.''''  This  sentence 
was  brutally  cai-ried  into  effect  five  years  afterward.  But 
they  strove  in  the  mean  time  to  conciliate  their  persecutors 
by  presenting  them  vdth.  a  Confession  of  their  Faith,  dra^vn 
up  in  language  of  touching  sunplicity.  In  it  they  say, 
"  We  acknowledge  that  kings,  princes  and  governors  are 
the  appouited  and  established  ministers  of  God,  whom  we 
are  bound  to  obey.  From  this  power  and  authority  no 
man  can  exempt  himself,  as  is  manifest  from  the  example  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  Avho  voluntarily  j^aid  tribute,  not  taJc- 
ingxiponhhnself  any  jurisdiction  of  teynporcd2:>oioer.  *  *  * 
By  baptism  we  are  received  uito  the  holy  congregation  of 
God's  'people,  previorisly  professmg  and  declarmg  om*  faith 
and  change  of  life." 

Enough  this  to  show  that  from  the  tune  of  Pojje  Sylves- 
ter, that  is,  from  the  time  of  ConstantLne,  when  he  united 
the  spiritual  and  temporal  power,  there  is  every  reason 
to  feel  assured  that  there  has  been  a  body  of  men  who  have 
opposed  the  whole  of  this,  and  have  vigorously  maintained 
freedom  of  conscience  and  the  entire  separation  of  Church 
and  State.  The  above  extracts  will  also  show  on  what 
grounds  an  1  to  what  ext^ii,  even  before  the  modern  strug- 
1  Jonea,  p.  324. 


30  THE    HEXIfOXITES. 

gles  since  the  Reformation,  this  may  be  considered  a  Bap 
tist  principle  and  peculiarity. 

If  we  turn  now  to  the  history  of  this  great  principle  since 
tiie  Reformation,  the  Mennonites  must  claim  our  first  no- 
tice. At  a  tune  when  all  other  denominations  sought  to 
establish  themselves  by  alliances  with  the  State,  and  too 
frequently  by  becoming  the  persecutors  of  their  brethren, 
the  Mennonites,  who  sprang  out  of  the  Waldenses  in  1536,^ 
contended  for  perfect  Uberty  of  conscience,  and  that  the 
magistrates  had  no  right  to  interfere  with  religious  convic- 
tions. This  opinion  is  founded  on  "the  one  principle," 
which,  as  Mosheim  justly  remarks,  is  at  the  basis  of  all  their 
peculiarities,  i.  e.  "  that  the  kingdom  which  Christ  has  estab- 
lished on  earth  is  a  visible  society  or  company,  in  which  is  no 
l>lace  for  any  but  holy  or  pious  persons."  Hence  all  connec- 
tion with  mere  State  institutions,  where  the  terms  of  mem- 
bership must  be  diiferent,  they  regarded  as  injurious.  In 
this  they  have  always  persevered,  and  when  about  the  year 
1820,  on  the  publication  of  the  proofs  of  their  ancient  ori- 
gin, by  Professor  Upeij  and  Dr.  Dermont,  they  Avere  offered 
government  support  by  the  King  of  the  Netherlands,  and 
recognition  as  a  State  religion,  they  deelmed  the  bounty  on 
the  ground  that  it  was  contrary  to  their  oldest  and  most 
settled  principles. 

How  different  was  the  conduct  of  all  their  cotempora- 
ries  in  the  Avork  of  religioixs  reformation,  great,  pious  and 
sincere  as  they  doubtless  were.  There  is  not  a  Creed  nor 
a  Confession  of  Faith  framed  by  any  of  the  Reformers  which 

'  See  Moslieim's  Cent.  XVI.,  sec.  3,  pa5^2,  chap,  iii.,  n.  22,  and  extracts 
from  "  An  account  of  the  origin  of  the  Dutcli  Baptist's  Religion,"  Eucj. 
Art.  Mennonites. 


ENGLISH    PROTESTANTS.  81 

does  not  give  to  the  magistrate  a  coercive  j^ower  iii  religion,' 
Luther  says  of  false  teachers,  "  I  am  very  averse  to  the 
shedding  of  blood.  'Tis  sufficient  that  they  should  be  ban- 
ished," but  he  allows  they  may  be  "  corrected  and  forced  at 
least  to  silence,  put  under  restraint  as  madmen."  As  to  the 
Jews,  he  thought  "their  Synagogues  should  be  leveled 
with  the  ground,  their  houses  burned,  and  their  books,  even 
to  the  Old  Testament,  taken  from  them."  Several  of  the 
Anabaptists  were  also  put  to  death  by  the  Lutherans  "  for 
propagating  their  errors,  contrary  to  the  judgment  of  the 
Landgrave  of  Hesse-Cassel." 

Nor  can  Calvin  be  acquitted  of  the  death  of  Servetus. 
He  says  himself  "  it  was  by  my  prosecution  he  was  impris- 
oned," and  expressed  the  "  hope  that  they  would  condemn 
him  to  death,  though  not  the  terrible  one  of  being  burned." 
Melahcthon,  Bucer,  and  many  other  of  the  Reformers,  wrote 
letters  of  approval,  saymg  tliat  "  to  endeavor  to  destroy  his 
dreams  by  a  tram  of  reasoning,  what  would  it  be  but  to 
grow  mad  with  a  madman."  Beza  ^^^.•ote  a  public  defense 
of  persecution,  and  in  1618  the  Synod  of  Dort  urged  upon 
the  civil  power  the  restramt  and  punishment  of  heresy,  in 
consequence  of  which  one  man  was  mxmediately  beheaded, 
another  condermied  to  perpetual  miprisonment,  and  several 
to  banishment.* 

In  England  the  same  spirit  prevailed.  Henry  VIII. 
burned  Papists  and  Baj^tists  at  the  same  stake  to  prove 
himself  Defender  of  the  Faith,  and  Cranmer's  hands  were 
stained  with,  the  blood  of  pious  women,  whUe  Queen  Eliza- 
beth re-lighted  the  fires  of  Smithfield,  like  her  father,  to 
burn  Anabaptists  and  Catholics.     King  James  resolved  to 

'  Struggles  and  Triumphs  of  Eoligious  Liberty,  p.  ST. 

2  See  Cumberland's  Introduction  to  Limborcb's  History  of  the  Inquisition. 


32  THE   BROWlSriSTS. 

"  break  the  spii-it  of  the  Non-conformists  if  it  would  not 
bow,"  and  caused  them  to  quit  the  country  in  large  num- 
bers. In  the  reign  of  Charles  I.,  Archbishop  Laud  ruled 
the  Church  with  a  rod  of  u-on ;  fines,  imprisonments,  cut- 
tmg  off  the  ears,  brandhag  in  the  face,  and  tortures  of  all 
kinds  were  inflicted. 

Nor  did  the  Presbyterians  when  they  obtained  the 
power,  neglect  using  the  authority  of  the  State  to  persecute, 
as  well  as  j^romote,  in  their  turn.  In  1638,  wliile  Roger 
"WiUiams  Avas  battlmg  for  freedom  of  conscience  with  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  nearly  thirty  years  after  their  principles  had 
been  publicly  avowed  in  London  by  the  Baptists,  we  find 
the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbj-terian  Church  in  Scot- 
land mterfering  -svith  the  liberty  of  the  press  and  the  ci\il 
power  in  a  manner  never  exceeded  by  Poj)ery  itself.  They 
forbade  "  all  printers  in  the  kingdom  fi-om  piinting  or  re- 
printing any  confession  of  faith,  or  protestation,  or  reason 
pro  or  contra,''''  in  regard  to  religious  controversies,  "  with- 
out warrant  subscribed  by  the  clerk  to  the  Assembly."  * 
In  1642,  Roman  Cathohcs  Avere  ordered  to  renounce  their 
"obstinacy"  imder  penalty  of  banishment  or  imprisoimient, 
as  might  seem  fit. 

Even  the  Brownists  "  agreed  but  too  well  with  them," 
as  Neal  testifies  "  in  assertmg  the  necessity  of  an  uniform- 
ity of  public  worship,  and  of  callmg  in  the  sword  of  the 
magistrate  for  the  support  and  defense  of  their  several 
principles,  which  they  made  an  ill  use  of  in  their  turn  as 
they  could  grasp  the  poAver  mto  their  hands."  And  the  In- 
dependents while  they  reformed  many  of  their  opmions, 
held  fast  to  this  as  we  shall  see. 

On  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  two  thousand  Non- 

'  Pictorial  History  of  England,  voL  iii.  p.  472.     Harper. 


THE   INDEPENDENTS.  83 

conformist  ministers  nobly  resigned  their  benefices  at  once 
rather  than  conform  to  the  tyranny  of  Government  interfer- 
ence in  a  specific  case  against  themselves.  But  they  never 
publicly  abandoned  the  principle  of  a  imion  of  Church  and 
State,  but  remained  just  as  Chahners  did  who  headed  the 
Free  Church  movement,  though  theoretically  m  favor  of 
an  estabhshed  rehgion.  It  may  be  questioned  whether,  a 
hundi-ed  years  ago,  if  an  estabhshment  broad  enough  to 
have  included  them  had  been  proposed  in  England,  the 
bulk  of  the  Independents  would  not  have  favored  it. 

But  in  1560,  early  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  the 
Baptists  m  Great  Britain  publicly  wrote  and  pubUshed  theii* 
protestations  against  all  persecution,  for  conscience'  sake. 
John  Knox  rephed  to  one  of  these  pubhcations,  in  a  Trea- 
tise called  "  An  Answer  to  a  great  number  of  blasphemous 
Cavillations,  written  by  an  Anabaptist  and  adversary  of 
God's  eternal  Predestination,  and  confuted  by  John  Knox." 
Alluding  to  persecuting  Christians,  the  Baptist  had  said, 
"  Be  these  I  pray  you,  the  sheep  whom  Christ  hath  sent 
forth  in  the  midst  of  wolves ;  can  the  sheep  persecute  the 
wolf?  Doth  Abel  kill  Cain?  Doth  David,  though  he 
might,  kill  Saul  ?  Doth  he  which  is  born  after  the  Spiiit 
kill  hun  that  is  born  after  the  flesh  ?" 

To  all  this  John  Knox  replies,  "  I  Avill  not  now  so  much 
labor  to  confute  by  my  pen,  as  my  full  purpose  is  to  lay  the 
same  to  thy  charge  if  I  shall  apprehend  thee  in  any  com- 
monwealth where  justice  against  blasphemers  may  be  nuii- 
istered  as  God's  word  requireth.  And  hereof  I  give  thee 
warning  lest  that  after  thou  shalt  complain  that  mider  the 
cloak  of  friendship  I  have  deceived  thee.  Wert  thou  my  nat- 
ui-al  brother  I  durst  not  conceal  thhie  iniquity  in  this  case." ' 

'  Struggles  and  Triumphs,  pp.  HO,  3. 
2* 


34  THE   BKOWNISTS. 

Toward  tlie  close  of  the  sixteenth  century  theii'  numbers 
increased  in  England.  They  regarded  Christ  as  the  Su- 
preme Governor  of  the  Church,  denied  that  the  queen  had 
any  authority  to  appoint  ministers  of  religion,  or  frame  any 
ecclesiastical  government,  and  asserted  that  the  Church 
ought  to  be  composed  of  "  lively  stones,"  and  that  it  was  im- 
lawful  to  baptize  children. 

It  is  true  that  on  the  accession  of  Bang  James  to  the 
Enghsh  throne,  some  few  of  the  Puritans  and  Indej)end- 
ents  were  favorable  to  a  more  enlarged  religious  tolera- 
tion than  was  then  practiced,  under  certain  restrictions  of 
officers,  appointed  by  the  State  to  supervise  their  proceed- 
ing; and  a  petition  was  j)resented  to  that  effi^ct  m  1609,  by 
a  Mr.  Jacob  and  others ;  but  the  inalienable  right  to  lib- 
erty of  conscience,  even  those  petitioners  had  yet  to  dis- 
cover. 

About  tliis  time,  also,  a  number  of  the  Brownists,  who 
already  held  to  a  converted  church-membership,  and  had 
fled  to  England,  followed  out  this  principle  to  its  legitunate 
conclusion,  became  Baptists  and  were  excommunicated  by 
then-  brethren  m  exile.'  They  also  foimd  light  break  upon 
them  in  regard  to  the  principle  of  liberty  of  conscience 
and  the  union  of  Church  and  State.  This  led  to  a  discus- 
sion of  all  these  prmciples  in  Holland.  In  1610,  we  find 
John  Robinson,  the  celebrated  Puritan  divine,  the  father 
of  the  Pilgrims,  wi'iting  earnestly  m  defense  of  the  power 
of  the  magistrate  "  to  punish  civilly,  religious  actions,"  * 
"  he  being  the  preserver  of  both  tables  and  so  to  punish  all 
branches  of  both."  He  is  to  "  by  compulsion,  repress  public 
and  notable  idolatry,  as  also  to  provide  that  the  truth  of 
God  in  his  ordinance  be  taught  and  published,  and  by  some 
1  Struggles  and  Triumphs,  pp.  197,  8. 


JOHN    ROBINSON    AND    THE    BAPTISTS.  35 

penalty  to  provoke  Ms  subjects  tmiversally  imto  hearing  for 
their  instruction  and  conversion ;  yea,  to  mflict  the  same 
upon  them  if  after  due  teaching  they  offer  not  themselves 
unto  the  Church.''''  ^ 

Opposed  to  him  was  John  Smyth,  originally  an  Episcopal 
clei  gyman,  of  such  superior  abilities  that  Bishop  Hall  speaks 
even  of  John  Robinson  as  no  more  than  his  "  shadow," 
He  thinking  it  would  be  a  great  help  and  encouragement 
to  the  Baptists  in  England  for  the  exUes  to  return  and 
openly  avow  their  sentiments,  piit  himself  at  the  head  of 
his  brethren  and  returned  with  them  as  their  pastor  to  Lon- 
don, in  order  as  they  declared  that  Christ  might  say  to 
them,  ministering  to  their  persecuted  brethren,  "I  was  in 
prison  and  ye  visited  me,  in  distress  and  ye  comforted  me." 
"  They  determined  to  challenge  kmg  and  State  to  their 
faces,  and  not  give  way  to  them,  no,  not  a  foot."  Thus  they 
returned  to  their  owti  comitry,  there  to  vmdicate  the  great 
principles  of  moral  and  religious  freedom.  How  much 
England,  how  much  America,  how  much  the  whole  world 
owes  and  will  owe  to  this  one  great  act  of  unsurpassed 
moral  heroism,  who  can  tell  ?  From  the  hour  they  set  foot 
in  England,  those  prmciples  have  been  steadily  advancmg. 
From  their  advocacy,  in  all  probability,  Roger  WUliams,  then 
a  lad,  must  have  first  heard  of  them.  And  by  him,  some 
twenty-three  or  four  years  later,  they  were  nobly  evolved 
upon  American  ground,  and  thus  became  the  germ  of  that 
perfect  religious  Uberty  we  now  enjoy.  In  1611,  they  pub- 
Hshed  a  Confession  of  their  Faith.  In  this,  true  to  the 
Waldensian  spirit  that  had  existed  for  so  many  ages,  they 
declare  that  "  the  magistrate  is  not  to  meddle  with  religion, 
or  matters  of  conscience,  nor  compel  men  to  this  or  that 
*  Struggles  aud  Triumphs,  p.  210. 


36  JOHX    EOBIXSOX    AXD    THE    BAPTISTS. 

form  of  religion,  because  Christ  is  the  Kmg  and  Lawgiver 
of  the  Church  and  Conscience." 

John  Robinson  ui  HoILand  not  only  opposed  the  return 
of  Mr.  Smyth  to  England,  hut  was  still  more  opposed  to 
his  vi3ws  of  the  right  of  Conscience.  In  1614,  he  pub- 
lished an  attack  upon  these,  Avhich  led  to  an  extended  con- 
troversy between  him  and  3Ir.  lielwisse,  Mr.  Smyth's  suc- 
cessor. The  following  passage  will  be  enough  to  show  the 
Baptist  view  m  this  discussion  : 

"  The  power  and  authority  of  the  king  is  earthly,  and 
God  hath  commanded  me  to  submit  to  all  ordinances  of  man. 
Therefore  I  have  faith  to  submit  to  what  ordinances  of  man 
soever  the  king  commands ;  if  it  be  a  human  ordinance  and 
not  against  the  manifest  word  of  God.  But  my  soul, 
wherewith  I  am  to  worship  God,  that  belongeth  to  a:n"otheb 
King,  whose  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,  whose  j^eople 
must  come  willingly,  whose  weapons  are  not  carnal,  but 
spiritual."  "  As  to  the  breach  of  Christ's  laws,  His  king- 
dom is  spiritual,  His  laws  sphitual,  the  transgression  spirit- 
ual, the  punishment  spii'itual,  everlasting  death  of  the  soul. 
No  carnal  or  worldly  weapon  is  given  to  the  supportation 
of  His  kingdom."  "  Magistracy  is  God's  blessed  ordinance 
in  its  right  place,  but  let  us  not  be  wiser  than  God."  Such 
were  some  of  the  words  of  Helwisse,  and  the  avowed  faith  of 
all  Baptists.'  And  yet,  ten  years  after,  we  find  John  Rob- 
mson  defending  the  right  of  the  magistrates  to  persecute 
error,  and  promote  what  they  think  to  be  true  religion,  by 
the  power  of  State.  Well  might  he  tell  the  departmg  pil- 
grims that  he  was  "  verily  persuaded  and  confident  that  the 
Lord  has  more  truth  yet  to  break  forth  out  of  His  holy 
word."  AY  ell  would  it  have  been  for  the  principles  of 
'  Struggles  and  Triumphs,  preface,  p.  11. 


ROGER   WILLIAMS.  37 

religious  liberty  if  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  the 
pilgrims  had  been  ready  to  act  upon  that  last  counsel ; — "  if 
God  reveal  any  thing  to  you  by  any  other  instrument  of  His, 
be  as  ready  to  receive  it  as  ever  you  were  to  receive  any 
truth  by  my  mmistry." 

It  ^ill  be  evident  thus  far  that  the  difference  between 
the  Baptists  and  all  other  Christian  sects,  at  this  time,  was 
not  one  of  degree,  but  of  principle.  It  was  not  as  to  the 
measure  of  toleration,  but  of  an  inalienable  right  to  abstract 
liberty  of  conscience.  Nor  was  it  a  mere  negation  for  which 
they  contended,  and  on  wliich  they  built,  but  a  positive 
prmciple,  that  the  Lord  was  King  in  Zion,  that  His  control 
over  the  conscience  was  supreme,  and  that  human  interfer- 
ence was  wrong  because  a  usurpation  of  his  prerogative. 

While  these  publications  were  takmg  place  m  London 
(1015),  Bacon,  as  Attorney-general,  was  torturmg  a  clergy- 
man for  writuig  a  seditious  sermon  he  never  even  j^reached. 
In  Bacon's  own  language,  he  questioned  him  "  before  tor- 
ture, between  torture,  and  after  torture,"  as  Dr.  W.  R. 
Williams  who  narrates  this  incident,  weU  remarks,  "thus 
turning  the  spit  of  human  sacrifice."  Sir  Edward  Coke 
refused  to  sanction  this  act  as  legal,  hi  the  foUo^^dng  year. 

About  this  time,  or  soon  after,  a  Welsh  lad  was  noticed 
by  this  same  Sir  Edward  Coke  on  account  of  his  manu- 
script notes  of  cases  argued  before  the  Star  Chamber,  and 
of  Sei'mons.  This  great  man,  the  promoter  of  hberty, 
became  the  patron,  friend,  and  almost  father  of  this  lad,  who 
iu  turn  cherished  an  enthusiastic  regard  for  the  Hfe  and 
writings  of  his  benefactor.  Coke  got  him  into  one  of 
the  most  fiimous  pubhc  schools  m  London — the  Charter 
House — where  his  abilities  won  him  distinguished  honors, 
and  a  pension  for  his  support  at  the  University      The  name 


38  ROGER   WILLIAMS. 

of  this  youth  is  still  preserved  at  Jesus'  College,  Oxford — 
Roger  Williams,  It  will  ever  be  preserved  in  the  records 
of  the  great  statesmen  of  the  world,  of  the  great  Lights 
of  Religious  Liberty,  and  above  all  of  those  whose  names 
are  written  m  heaven. 

Ordained  in  the  Church  of  England  about  1628,  he  very 
shortly  afterward  became  so  strongly  Puritan  that  he  could 
not  use  the  prayer-book  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 
fomid  it  unsafe  to  remain  in  the  country  for  fear  of  the  per- 
secutions of  Laud.  In  1G30,  therefore,  he  sailed  for  Amer- 
ica and  joined  the  Pilgruns  who  had  preceded  him  only 
by  about  ten  years.  But  his  zeal  and  the  measure  of  his 
knowledge  already  had  outrun  theh's,  and  he  soon  found 
himself  exposed  to  various  kinds  of  misconstruction  and 
persecution.  It  would  seem  that  from  the  time  of  his  arri- 
val he  steadily  set  his  face  agamst  all  kinds  of  rehgious  in- 
tolerance, and  compulsion  in  matters  of  faith  and  conscience. 
For  five  years,  however,  he  remained  among  his  Pimtan 
brethen,  his  peculiar  views  gradually  dra^dug  round  him 
warm  friends  on  the  one  side,  and  stern  opposition  on  the 
other,. until  at  length  banished  from  Salem  in  1635,  after 
fourteen  weeks  with  neither  bed  nor  bread,  he  settled  down 
at  Providence,  there  to  develoj^  the  genu  of  a  new  style  of 
government  among  men,  one  which  recognized  the  rights  of 
God  as  supreme,  and  presumed  not  to  molest  the  conscience. 
For  this  government  and  on  these  principles  he  secured  a 
charter,  and  at  his  oyvn  cost  watched  over  its  infant  Uberties. 

To  Rogers  Williams  belongs  imquestionably  the  honor  of 
bemg  the  first  Christian  legislator  who  formally  recognized 
this  great  principle  m  the  establishment  and  administration 
of  any  government.  Nor  is  it  easy  to  estimate  the  boldness 
required  to  achieve  it,  or  the  value  of  this  success  to  the 


ROGER   "WILLIAMS.  39 

"world.  Doubtless  his  love  and  veneration  for  his  great 
patron  had  done  much  to  form  and  mature  in  his  mind 
principles  of  constitutional  fi-eedom  applied  to  rehgion.  But 
he  went  to  lengths  that  his  benefxctor  would  never  have 
thought  of  going,  and  for  advocating  which  the  descendants 
of  that  great  man  abused  him  grossly.  It  seems  hardly- 
probable  that  one  of  his  cast  of  mind  had  failed  to  hear  of 
and  notice  the  controversy  raging  "with  fierceness  aU  through 
his  youth  m  London,  on  the  subject  of  religious  Uberty. 
Certain  it  is  that  from  the  fii'st  he  seems  to  have  grasped 
"with  precision  all  the  consequences  of  his  j^rmciples.  "  It  is 
"wonderful,"  as  Bancroft  has  said,  ""with  "what  distmctness 
Roger  Williams  deduced  his  inferences,  the  readiness  with 
which  he  accepted  every  fair  inference  from  his  doctrines, 
and  the  circumspection  ^ith  which  he  repelled  every  mijust 
imputation."  One  thing  is  certain,  it  was  the  light  "v^dthin 
that  enabled  him  to  perceive  a  truth  that  might  have  re- 
mained hidden  to  tliis  day  from  mere  worldly  sagacity  and 
statesmanshij).  Even  Oliver  Cromwell,  England's  great 
Protector,  and  one  less  disposed  to  persecute  than  the 
Prelatists,  or  Puritans,  of  his  day,  developed  not,  m  his 
whole  com'se  of  government,  one  principle  or  practice  of 
half  the  value  of  this  to  the  "world.  Indeed,  he  claimed  the 
right,  as  head  of  the  State,  to  persecute  Roman  Catholics 
and  Episcopalians,  and  even  to  examine  every  minister  as 
to  his  call  to  preach.  Not  an  uninstructive  contrast  might 
be  exhibited  to  the  "world  were  Mr.  Carlyle  to  place  the 
characters  of  these  two  governors  side  by  side,  and  weigh 
them  in  the  balance  impartially,  either  as  to  the  ideas  on 
"which  they  wrought,  or  the  consequences  ofthem  to  the  world. 
But  it  is  upon  American  soil,  and  by  contrast  "nith  the 
principles  then  developmg  themselves  on  this  side  of  the 


40  LOED   BALTIMORE. 

Atlantic,  that  tne  character  of  Roger  Williams  will  be  most 
fairly  estimated.  Strange  to  say,  it  is  that  Church  drunk 
■\Tith  the  blood  of  the  saints,  which  for  ages  persecuted  the 
suffering  Waldenses  that  alone  has  ventured  to  contend 
with  Roger  Williams  for  the  honor  of  fii-st  proclahumg  re- 
ligious freedom  to  the  world  by  law.  Archbishop  Hughes 
has  preferred  this  claim  in  behalf  of  the  Roman  CathoUc 
proprietor  of  Maryland,  Lord  Baltimore.  But  with  what 
preposterous  injustice  this  claim  is  urged,  let  facts  show.  It 
is  said  that,  as  early  as  1632,  he  had  recognized  a  general 
rehgious  toleration.  But  where  is  the  proof  of  it  ui  any 
authentic  shape  before  1648  ?  Not  in  the  Charter  certamly, 
which  contains  no  single  hint  of  any  toleration  in  religion 
not  vouchsafed  by  the  laws  of  England.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  places  of  worsliip,  it  is  provided,  are  to  be  consecrated 
according  to  the  "  ecclesiastical  law  of  England,"  and  all 
laws  were  to  be  "  so  far  as  conveniently  might  be,  consonant 
to  the  laws  of  England,"  which  would,  of  course,  have 
force  imtil  others  were  enacted.  The  most  which  can  be 
pretended,  therefore,  is,  that  the  desne  and  mtention  to 
extend  this  toleration  resided  m  the  breast  of  Lord  Balti- 
more, although  he  had  not  the  power  to  give  it  the  force 
of  legal  enactment.  But  we  have  seen  that,  so  far  as  this 
was  concerned,  twenty-one  years  before  this  time,  the  Bap- 
tists m  London  had  pubHshed  to  the  world  far  more  noble 
sentiments  in  favor  of  religious  fi-eedom.  Roger  Williams 
had  probably  uttered  far  higher  prmciples  two  years  before 
and  for  centuries  and  centuries  the  Waldenses  had  protested 
agamst  the  Roman  CathoUc  Church  for  her  opposition  to 
all  these  very  prmciples,  and  had  mamtained  the  docti'ine 
of  rehgious  fi-eedom  far  more  thoroughly  and  fairly  than 
Lord  Baltunore  ever  di'eamed  of. 


EOGER    WILLIAMS.  41 

But  it  was  not  until  1649  that  this  toleration  was  duly- 
enacted/  In  what  "way,  then,  can  it  be  pretended  that  the 
Roman  Catholic  has  precedence  of  the  Baptist  as  to  dates. 
In  1630,  Roger  WUliams  commenced  to  preach  in  favor  of 
religious  liberty;  and  in  1636,  having  purchased  tcrritoi-y 
from  the  Indians,  commenced  to  found  a  colony  on  the  ex- 
press principle  of  perfect  religious  liberty.  In  1638,  others 
having  joined,  and  purchased  the  territory  of  the  present 
State  of  Rhode  Island,  a  voluntary  government  was  formally 
mstituted  by  a  solemn  covenant  of  all  to  "  submit  to  the 
orders  of  the  major  part  in  civil  things  onlyP  Thus  was  a 
constitution  formed  on  the  express  basis  of  a  perfect  liberty  of 
conscience.^  It  is  true  that  it  was  not  untU  1644  that  Roger 
Williams  obtained  his  Charter  from  the  knag.  This  was  not 
sought,  even  then,  because  he  deemed  it  necessary,  but  only 
expedient,  as  a  means  of  preventing  the  encroachments  of 
the  colony  of  Massachusetts.  This  Charter  was  obtained, 
and  solemnly  accepted  and  adopted  by  the  inhabitants,  in 
1647 ;  and  on  the  10th  of  May,  in  that  yeai*,  a  body  of  laws 
was  enacted,  and  the  government  further  settled  upon  the 
principle  of  perfect  reUgious  liberty.^  Even  tliis  last  was 
about  two  years  j^revious  to  any  enactment  in  favor  of 
toleration  afterward  established  in  Maryland.  A  more  vital 
point,  however,  than  one  of  dates  remains  to  be  considered. 

The  very  word  toleration  uupUes  a  right  to  persecute ;  and 
how  flir  was  immunity  in  this  case  to  extend  ?  When  first, 
in  1649,  it  took  the  form  of  law,  while  allowing  general  re- 
ligious liberty  to  others,  it  denounced  death,  "u-ith  forfeiture 
of  goods,  against  all  who  should  deny  the  Godhead  of  any 
of  the  three  persons  of  the  Trinity,  and  fine,  whippmg,  and 

>  See  Hndreth,  vol.  i.  pp.  20T,  347 

2  HUdreth,  vol.  i.  p.  256.  3  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  322. 


42  WILLIAM    PENN. 

banishment,  against  all  who  should  ntter  any  reproachful 
words  or  speeches  respecting  the  Virgin  Mary,  it  was 
expressly  declared  that  the  Roman  Cathohc  Chm-ch  should 
have  aU  its  rights  and  privileges,  and  that,  in  particular,  no 
Roman  Catholic  should  be  molested.  In  fact,  it  was  a  mere 
plan  to  include  Papists  in  a  reUgious  hberty  just  broad 
enough  to  shield  them  from  the  persecutions  of  the  Puritans, 
but  no  hroader.  Instead  of  equitable  terms  of  citizenship, 
it  would  have  put  to  death  such  men  as  Dr.  Channing  and 
Edward  Everett ;  and  even  Robert  Hall,  for  the  opinions  of 
his  earlier  years.  These  laws  were  never  repealed,  and  only 
superseded  a  few  years  ago  by  the  adoption  of  a  new  Con- 
stitution. They  probably  remain  the  law  to  this  day  in  the 
District  of  Columbia. 

Lord  Baltimore  was,  indeed,  no  bigot,  and  far  in  advance 
of  most  of  his  own  sect  and  age.  But  a  claim  Uke  that  put 
forth  by  Archbishop  Hughes  manifests  a  degree  of  effi-ontery 
rarely  equaled.  It  wiH  not  be  forgotten  that  just  before 
the  Revolution  of  1688,  James  II.  attempted  a  system  of 
toleration  of  exactly  this  very  character,  merely  to  smuggle  in 
the  Cathohcs,  and  throw  England  back  agam  into  the  arms 
of  the  CathoHc  Church.  The  treachery  was  discovered,  and 
James  II.  lost  his  throne  soon  after,  none  considering  re- 
ligious liberty  safe. 

About  fifty  years  after  Roger  Williams  had  first  advanced 
his  views  on  the  subject  of  reUgious  hberty,  m  1682,  Wil- 
liam Penn  pubUshed  in  London  his  celebrated  "  Frame  of 
Government,"  which  has  been  justly  considered  to  contain 
some  of  the  most  Avise  and  admirable  views  ever  set  forth 
by  one  to  whom  so  much  power  was  committed.  Himself 
by  bh-th  the  son  of  a  Baptist,  and  by  conviction  a  Quaker, 
no  small  degree  of  liberty  of  conscience  was  naturally  to  be 


WILLIAM     TENX.  43 

expected  in  the  constitution  of  tliis  colony.  And  he  care- 
fully provided  "that  all  persons  who  confess  and  acknowledge 
the  Almighty  and  Eternal  God  to  be  the  creator,  upholder, 
and  I'uler  of  the  world,  *  *  *  shall  ui  no  ways  be  mo- 
lested nor  compelled  to  frequent  or  mamtam  any  rehgious 
worship."  Yet  only  those  who  professed  "  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ"  were  allowed  to  become  freemen,  a  clause  which 
would  now,  perha^Ds,  exclude  from  the  rights  of  suftrage  not 
only  every  infidel  and  Jew,  but  a  large  portion  of  the  very 
denomination  to  secure  whose  equal  rights  of  conscience  tlie 
colony  was  especially  planted.  This  was  far  in  advance  of 
the  age  generally — it  was  in  advance  of  Lord  Baltimore's 
platform,  out  of  deference  to  which  it  is  not  improbable  that 
the  clause  as  to  fiiith  m  Christ  was  inserted,  but  it  failed  to 
recognize  the  true  i^rmci^jle  of  "  soul  freedom,"  as  set  forth 
by  Roger  Wilhams  in  writings  published  forty  years  before. 
To  Penu  it  doubtless  seemed  difficult  to  know  where  to  draw 
the  line,  as  it  has  to  many  both  before  and  since.  That  all 
law  essentially  rests  upon  a  rehgious  basis  no  Avise  man  can 
doubt.  So  far,  therefore,  as^  imiversal  religion  teaches  man, 
as  man,  the  rights  and  duties  which  he  owes  to  his  fellow- 
citizens,  so  far  his  fellow-citizens  may  insist  upon  those 
rights  bemg  fully  respected  and  those  duties  enforced.  And 
it  may  also  be  theu'  aim  and  poHcy  to  afford  every  oppor 
tunity  to  cultivate  the  rehgious  sjjirit,  which  is  a  part  of 
man's  nature  miiversally.  But  it  has  no  right  to  make 
opmions  a  crime,  unaccompanied  by  any  overt  act.  And  to 
enforce  what  God  has  been  pleased  to  reveal  by  special 
revelation,  is  an  insult  to  Him  who  declared,  "  3Iy  kingdoni 
is  not  of  tills  world."  Unquestionably  those  who  acknowl- 
edge the  truth  of  Christianity  feel  assured  that  it  can  in  no 
way  contradict  natural  religion,  but,  on  the  contrary,  gives 


44  TVILLIAM    PENN. 

to  it  its  fullest,  clearest,  and  most  authentic  expression, 
developing  the  highest  moral  ti-uths  ages  in  advance  of  what 
they  might  otherwise  have  been  discovered  by  human  wis- 
dom.  So  far,  however,  as  Christianity  is  a  special  revela- 
tion, and  enjoins  any  new  and  particular  duties  on  men, 
such  as  to  be  baptized  or  join  a  church,  it  is  no  part  of  the 
duty  or  right  of  the  civil  government  to  enforce  them.'  To 
do  so  is  to  interfere  ^^-ith  the  prerogatives  of  the  Mngdom 
of  God.  As  to  all  matters  of  belief  reqmi-ed  by  Christianity 
as  a  special  revelation,  it  is  stUl  more  objectionable  to  make 
them  tests  of  citizenship. 

Here  the  principles  of  Roger  Williams  are  far  in  advance 
of  those  of  WilHam  Penn,  But  no  man,  no  body  of  men, 
should  be  made  an  ofi'ender  for  a  word,  and  the  Friends,  as 
a  whole,  have  argued  and  wrought  nobly  in  defense  of  an 
unfettered  conscience.  To  them  has  been  given  the  prerog- 
ative of  suffering  greatly  in  this  cause,  and  enduring  more 
than  any  others,  unless  it  has  been  ourselves.  And  yet  a 
singular  practical  illustration  may  serve  to  show  how  dan- 
gerous it  is  to  trust  even  the  best  Christians  A\ith  one  par 
tide  of  excuse  for  using  the  power  of  the  magistracy  to 
promote  the  revealed  truth,  or  put  down  error.  In  less 
than  ten  years  from  the  promulgation  of  this  "  Frame  of 
Government,"  the  city  of  Philadelphia  was  thrown  into  no 

'  In  regard  to  laws  for  enforcing  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  the 
first  point  on  which  Roger  "Williams  commenced  his  protests,  see  Way- 
land's  Moral  Science,  p.  190.  A  Sabbath,  that  is,  a  period  for  religious 
cultivation,  is  a  duty  of  natural  religion.  Hence  the  observance  of  that 
duty  ought  to  be  protected  from  all  possible  molestation  and  inconvenience. 
Government  offices  should  be  closed,  therefore,  by  law,  and  all  influence 
without  persecution  thrown  in  favor  of  that  day  most  acceptable  to  the 
consciences  of  the  best  and  largest  number  of  citizens. 


THE    FRIE:!iDS.  45 

little  confiision  by  the  iutevforence  of  Quaker  magistrates, 
as  such,  iu  a  dispute  puri'ly  religious. 

George  Keith,  foreseeiug  that  certain  views  of  "plenary 
inward  iUuniinatiou'"  superseding  the  written  word  of  God, 
Avould  ultimately  culminate  in  the  modern  Hieksite  views, 
sj)oko  much  on  this  subject,  for  which  he  incm-red  fines  and 
imprisonments  from  some  of  the  authorities,  who  were 
Friends,  At  last  the  case  came  before  John  Holmes,  a 
magistrate  and  judge  of  considerable  influence,  but  also  a 
Baptist.  He  at  once  refused  to  concur  with  the  Quaker 
magistrates,  alleging  that  "  it  was  a  religious  dispute,  and 
therefore  not  fit  for  a  civil  court."  The  Keithians  broke 
off  from  the  rest  of  the  Friends  in  1691,  procured  a  lot, 
and  built  a  house  of  worsliip  in  Second  street,  Philadelpliia. 
And  when,  a  few  years  afterward,  the  Baptists  were  itntairly 
expelled  from  a  place  of  worship  in  Chestnut  street,  the 
use  of  tills  house  of  the  Keithians  was  kindly  ottered  to 
them.  The  members  of  that  body  sliortly  afterward  be- 
came Baptists,  and  thus  the  house  ancLA'aluabk'  lot  so  long 
occupied  by  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  Philadelphia,  came 
into  their  possession — an  apt  illustration  of  the  effects  of  the 
exact  exercise  of  principles  of  perfect  liberty  of  conscience. 
For  some  years  there  were  many  so-called  Quaker  Baptists 
connected  with  that  church. 

Down  to  the  period  of  tlie  American  Revolution,  all  the 
other  colonies  probably,  except  Rhode  Island  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, had  more  or  less  of  an  established  Churi-h,  and  there- 
fore religious  persecution.  In  Virginia,  Avherc,  from  the 
first,  the  Church  of  England  had  been  by  law  established, 
many  acts  were  passed  of  a  most  intolerant  character. 
Lord  Baltimore  and  the  Romanists  were  persecuted  until  a 
state  of  almost  civil  war  existed  between  that  colony  and 


46  NEW    ENGLAND. 

Maryland.  Laws  intencled  chiefly  against  the  Quakers  were 
used  for  the  oppression  of  all,  even  the  Presbyterians,  and 
before  a.d.  1650,  more  than  one  thousand  N"ew  England 
Congregationalists  had  been  driven  away  by  her  oppressive 
severities.'  In  that  State,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  the  Bap- 
tists suffered  severely  untU  after  the  struggle  of  the  Revo- 
lution began. 

In  New  England,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Congregationalists 
were,  on  principle,  at  war  with  liberty  of  conscience,  perse- 
cuting bitterly  alike  Roman  Cathohcs,  Quakers,  and  Bap- 
tists, except  as  deterred  by  occasional  interference  from 
Great  Britain.  These  errors  brought  about,  by  their  natural 
oi:)eration,  severe  consequence.  The  same  alliance  of 
Church  and  the  Magistracy,  which  led  to  the  persecution 
of  Roger  Wilhams,  led  also  to  the  burnmg  of  the  su2)j)osed 
witches  in  Salem,  the  very  town  fi-om  which  he  was  expelled. 
The  same  connection  of  the  elective  fi-ancliise  and  church  mem- 
bership, led  to  the  introduction  of  Unitarianism  through  the 
half  covenant  systen^  This  at  least  was  one  of  the  causes. 
In  that  colony  no  man  could  become  a  voter,  or  eligible  to 
ofiice,  who  was  not  a  member  of  the  Congregational  Church. 
Hence  arose  a  strong  desire  on  the  jiart  of  many  of  the 
children  of  the  first  settlers,  men  not  themselves  professmg 
personal  piety,  to  become  members,  so  far  at  least  as  to 
possess  political  rights.  To  accommodate  them,  an  act  was 
passed  in  1663  which  recognized  all  persons  sprinkled  in 
infancy  as  members  of  the  Church,  and  then*  children  as 
entitled  to  baptism,  even  when  the  j^arents,  makmg  no  pro- 
fession of  j^ersonal  faith,  were  not  admitted  to  the  commu- 
nion. In  a  few  years  later,  another  step  ine\'itably  followed, 
and  such  persons  were  mvited  to  the  table  of  the  Lord, 

'  Howison'a  Historj'  of  Virginia,  vol.  ii.  p.  160. 


NEW    ENGLAND.  47 

because  they  wore  already  church  members.  Thus  were 
those  who  were  not  pious  uitroducecl  mto  the  churches  m 
vast  numbers.  The  pulpits  Avere  then  recruited  from  theu* 
ranks,  until  the  ministry  became  a  mere  profession,  not  re- 
quiring even  an  avowed  belief  m  the  doctrme  of  the  new 
birth.  Such  was  the  imion  of  Church  and  State  iu  New 
England,  and  such  its  results. 

The  above  is  a  rapid  sketch  of  the  history  of  religious 
liberty,  pv'or  to  the  last  himdrecl  years.  It  was  essentially 
a  Baptist  principle,  derived  by  them,  and  by  them  alone, 
from  their  views  of  church-membership.  It  was  first  in- 
troduced by  Roger  Williams  into  the  registered  principles 
of  actual  statesmanship.  In  all  this  he  was  the  precursor 
of  MUton,  and  the  superior  of  Oliver  Cromwell  and  Jeremy 
Taylor.  Bancroft  has  still  further  justly  said :  "  If  Coperni- 
cus is  held  in  perpetual  reverence,  because  on  his  death-bed 
he  published  to  the  world  that  the  sun  is  the  center  of  o\vc 
system — if  the  name  of  Kepler  is  preserved  in  the  annals 
of  human  exceUence  for  his  sagacity  in  detecting  the  laws 
of  planetary  motion— if  the  genius  of  Newton  has  been  al- 
most adored  for  dissecting  a  ray  of  light,  and  weighing  the 
heavenly  bodies  in  a  balance,  let  there  be  for  the  name  of 
Roger  Williams  at  least  some  humble  place  among  those 
who  have  advanced  moral  science,  and  made  themselves  the 
benefactors  of  mankind." 

§  n.    Progress  op  Religious  Liberty  in  the  last  Hundred 

Tears. 

There  is  not  now  probably  a  State  or  Territory  m  this 
Union  in  which  there  is  left  even  the  vestige  of  an  Estab- 
lished Church,  or  of  direct  persecution  on  account  of  relig- 
ious opinions,  unless  indeed  among  the  Mormon  settlements 


48  A    HUNDEED     TEARS    AGO. 

in  Xltali.  Hardly  an  American  is  to  be  found  any  where 
who  would  vote  to  restore  these  injurious  principles.  In- 
deed this  may  be  considered  as  one  of  the  most  marked 
features  of  American,  as  distmct  from  European,  Christianity. 

But  a  hmidred  years  ago  it  was  not  so.  There  was  more 
or  less  of  an  Estabhshed  Church,  and  of  persecution  for 
conscience'  sake,  in  the  laws  of  all  Europe,  and  of  every  one 
of  the  colonies,  excepting  only  in  Rhode  Island  and  Pennsyl- 
vania. This  was  not  the  fault  of  civU  governments  so  much 
as  of  religious  sects.  Not  a  siagle  Pedobaptist  denomina- 
tion held  to  the  views  now  so  universal  m  this  country. 
Every  one  of  them  hi  turn  had  claimed  and  exercLsed  the 
right  to  promote  religion  by  law,  which  involves  a  right  to 
persecute  aU  oj^ponents.  It  is  now  only  about  a  hundred 
years  (1746)  since  the  Protestants  ventured  to  appear  pub- 
licly in  Languedoc  and  the  south  of  France,  so  dreadful  Avas 
the  bitterness  of  the  persecution  to  which  they  were  sub- 
jected from  the  Cathohcs,  after  the  massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew, and  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Xantes; 
while,  to  this  day,  molestation  and  ^persecution  of  all  Protest- 
ants are  the  most  distmguishing  characteristics  of  the  French 
Papacy.  The  Episcopahans  collected  their  tithes  by  law  in 
England,  and  their  tobacco  tax  in  America,  and  conferred 
no  offices  of  State  but  upon  their  O'^ahi  communicants,  not 
suffering  a  Roman  Catholic  to  vote,  even  in  Ireland.  Pres- 
byterianism  was  as  clearly  established  jjy  law  in  Scotland, 
and  Congregationalism  m  Xew  England. 

What,  then,  has  wrought  the  change — what  has  given 
these  United  States  such  perfect  religious  hberty  as  all 
enjoy  ?  Beyond  all  question,  the  successful  workmg  of  the 
principles  of  a  free  conscience  m  Rhode  Island  and  Penn- 
sylvania.  Massachusetts  beside  the  one  and  Virginia  beside 


VIRGINIA.  49 

the  other,  fined,  imprisoned,  and  maltreated  m  various 
ways,  by  law,  for  conscience'  sake.  Yet  it  was  not  found  to 
render  the  people  more  religious.  On  the  contrary,  it 
alienated  the  minds  of  some  of  the  best  citizens  from  each 
other  and  from  the  State,  and  two  of  the  most  orderly,  re- 
ligious, and  pleasant  cities  to  reside  in,  even  to  this  day,  are 
Providence  and  Philadelphia,  one  being  at  the  time  of  the 
Ilevolution  the  largest  city  of  the  Union,  the  other  proba- 
bly the  wealthiest  in  proportion  to  its  size.  Hence,  when  a 
struggle  came  which  called  for  the  most  perfect  union  and 
strength  of  every  colony  individually,  and  of  the  whole 
collectively,  the  only  course  was  to  discontinue  every  occa- 
sion of  dissension  and  ahenation,  by  allowing  a  perfect  fi'ee- 
dom  of  religious  opinions.  • 

One  immediate  occasion  of  brmging  all  these  prmciples 
into  action  was  the  persecution  and  estrangement  produced 
by  the  Established  religion  in  Virginia,  preparmg  and  unit- 
ing the  pubUc  mind,  to  no  small  degree,  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  precipitate  the  American  Revolution.  Rapacity  in  claim- 
ing the  tobacco  tax,  which  was  the  legal  support  of  the 
Episcopal  clergy,  and  negligence  in  the  performance  of  their 
duties,  had  made  the  Established  ministers  impopular  with 
the  planters,  who  had  this  tax  to  pay.  A  rotten  system 
will,  however,  stand  for  a  long  time,  provided  there  is  noth- 
ing to  give  the  people  an  idea  of  any  thmg  better.  But 
that  idea  once  given,  the  first  accident  will  overthrow  an 
establishment  that  has  lost  its  hold  upon  the  affections  of 
the  people.  It  was  so  now.  Some  small  but  zealous  bodies 
of  Baptists,  converted  m  Xew  England  in  the  revivals  un- 
der Whitefield,  had  moved  southward  as  missionary  com- 
munities, and  settled  for  a  time  in  Yirgmia.  They  were 
called  New  Lights,  on  account  of  their  zeal,  and  were  for 

3 


60  VIEGIXIA. 

many  years  the  constant  subject  of  every  indignity.  But 
their  zeal  sustained  them,  and  the  more  they  Avere  perse- 
cuted the  more  they  grew.  The  complete  contrast  which 
they  exhil)ited  to  the  prevailing  coldness  of  all,  and  the  utter 
dea(hiess  of  the  worldly  ministers  of  the  EstabUshed  Church, 
elevated  them  in  the  eyes  of  the  people.  The  Episcopal 
clergy  lost  their  hold  upon  the  religious  feelings  of  the  peo- 
ple by  their  profligacy,  and  these  Baptists  gained  it  by 
their  zeal. 

The  magistrates  and  aristocratic  friends  of  the  EstabUshed 
Church  felt  their  danger,  and  imprisoned  all  the  more  zeal- 
ous Baj^tist  preachers  on  whom  they  could  lay  hands.  This 
only  raised  theii-  popularity  with  the  common  people,  until 
at  length  it  became  a  sapng  of  then-  enemies,  that  it  was 
useless  to  incarcerate  the  Baptists,  as  they  would  only 
preach  more  successfully  from  the  prison  windows.  A  short 
crop  of  tobacco  at  this  juncture  did  what  other^-ise  a  cen- 
tury might  not  have  effected — it  united  the  powerful  and 
haughty  aristocracy  of  Virginia  with  the  masses,  against  the 
Established  Church.  Tobacco  was  scarce,  and  the  price 
was  high.  The  clergy  demanded  their  per  centage  in  kind, 
and  refiised  to  take  the  customary  equivalent  of  the  usual 
price  jDer  pound.  The  colony  of  Virginia  passed  a  law  in 
favor  of  commutation  at  the  usual  price,  it  being  worth 
many  times  more.  Ilie  clergy  appealed  through  the 
Bishop  of  London,  and  an  Order  in  Council  nullified  the 
law.  So  far,  the  Established  Church  triumphed.  But 
Avhen  they  brought  a  suit  to  recover,  Patrick  Henry,  whose 
feelings  were  "\\4th  the  masses,  inflaming  the  passions  of  the 
jury  with  his  ovv  n  eloquence,  obtained  a  verdict  against  the 
law,  on  revolutionary  principles,  which  practically  nullified 
the  power  of  the  Crown,  and  made  the  colonial  law  su- 


VIRGINIA.  51 

preme.  From  that  hour,  the  influence  of  the  Established 
Church  was  destroyed  ia  Virginia.  The  aristocracy  of  Vir- 
ginia, through  the  House  of  Assembly,  at  once  united  in 
retaining  Patrick  Henry,  the  man  of  the  people,  to  defend 
them,  by  destroying  the  Established  Church.  The  work 
was  done  efiectually.  Baptists  stUl  continued  to  be  impris- 
oned and  tried  "  for  preachmg  the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of 
God ;"  but  this  only  awoke  the  orator  of  the  people  to 
higher  efforts  of  eloquence.  Liberty  of  conscience  for  per- 
secuted Baptist  ministers,  was  the  theme  which  inspired 
him  ■u-ith  an  eloquence,  the  traditions  of  which  almost  sur- 
pass belief  These  tilings  all  wrought  upon  the  public 
mind  to  such  an  extent,  that,  in  1776,  it  is  said  fully  two 
thirds  of  the  people  were  dissenters.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  Revolutionary  War  all  persecution  for  religious  opinions 
was  forever  blotted  from  the  statute-books,  and  almost  by 
the  end  of  that  struggle,  the  last  vestige  of  the  union  of 
Church  and  State,  or  the  compulsory  support  of  religion, 
was,  chiefly  through  the  influence  of  the  Baptists,  abol- 
ished, in  this  the  most  populous  and  influential  State  of  that 
time.  Up  to  a  certain  point,  the  labors  of  Patrick  Henry 
were  of  great  use  in  securing  these  triumphs  of  religious 
liberty.  He  pleaded  for  them  nobly  and  boldly,  but  the 
Baptists,  on  whose  behalf  he  spoke,  suffered  for  them  and 
pleaded  too.  In  some  of  the  later  stages  of  these  move- 
ments, he  hesitated  and  compromised,  where  Jefferson, 
who,  though  a  free-thinker,  had  studied  carefully  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Baptists,  took  the  lead,  and  carried  them 
through.  Others,  of  course,  assisted  in  this  great  work  be- 
sides Baptists  ;  the  Presbyterians,  vigorously ;  and  these 
two  seemed  to  form  the  conscience,  so  to  speak,  of  the 
movement.     So  little,  however,  were  their  principles  appre- 


52  NEW    ENGLAND. 

ciated  at  the  time,  tliat  the  Methodists  joined  with  the 
Ejiiscopalians,  and  took  decided  ground  in  favor  of  the 
support  of  rehgion  by  the  State/  and  in  every  movement 
favorable  to  hberty  of  conscience  and  entire  separation  of 
Church  and  State,  the  Baptists  "  took  the  lead."  ^ 

Nor  were  they  less  active  in  other  parts  of  the  country, 
or  in  other  ways.  In  Massachusetts,  w])  to  the  time  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  the  Baptists  were  subjected 
to  severe  persecutions  by  the  standing  order.  Pecuniary 
assessments,  considered  quite  unjust,  were  made  in  the  name 
of  religion.  These  demands  the  Baptists  refused  to  pay, 
and  then-  property  was  seized  to  large,  often  exorbitant, 
amounts,  the  object  being  apparently  thus  to  break  them 
tip.  A  committee  of  remonstrance  was  formed  in  Philadel- 
phia, and  large  funds  were  raised  by  committees  of  Baptist 
Churches  and  associations  all  over  the  country  to  assist  in 
defraymg  their  expenses  and  burdens. 

What  made  their  case  harder  was,  that  the  very  men 
who  were  upholding  Church  establishments  among  Congre* 
gationalists,  were  opposing  them  on  purely  Baptist  piiiici- 
ples,  when  urged  by  the  Church  of  England.  The  English 
Government  clearly  contemplated  the  taxing  of  all  the 
American  Colonies  to  support  the  Episcopal  clergy  in  them. 
Against  this  Dr.  Chauncey  wrote  strongly :  "  We  are  in 
principle  against  all  civil  estabUshments  in  rehgion,  and  as 
we  do  not  desire  any  establishment  in  support  of  our  own 
religious  sentiments  or  practice,  Ave  can  not  reasonably  be 
blamed  if  we  are  not  disposed  to  encourage  one  in  favor  of 
the  Episcopal  colonists."  lie  went  on  to  declare  that  the 
religion  of  Jesus  Christ  had  suffered  more  from  such  estab- 
lishments than  from  all  other  causes  put  together,  and  that 

*  Hawkes,  p.  142.  *  Howison,  vol.  ii.  p.  ITO. 


ISAAC    BACKUS.  53 

the  primitive  purity,  simplicity,  and  glory  of  religion  would 
never  be  restored  till  they  were  all  put  doA^Ti,  And  yet 
this  very  man  for  thirty  years  advocated  the  compulsory 
support  of  Congregationalist  worship  by  law/ 

The  plan  adopted  m  Massachusetts  seemed  indeed  com- 
paratively mild  in  itself,  considered  for  an  establishment. 
Each  parish  called  its  own  minister,  and  then  a  tax  was  laid 
on  all  by  law  for  his  support.  If  dissenters  could  prove 
that  they  were  members  of  some  other  congregation,  to  the 
support  of  which  they  paid,  they  were  to  receive  a  certifi 
cate  of  exemption.  These  certificates,  however,  were  so 
little  useful  that,  in  the  small  town  of  Stanbridge,  Mass.,  in 
two  years  the  Baptists  lost  about  four  hundred  dollars  un. 
justly.  In  1752  all  Baptist  Churches  were  excluded  even 
fi-om  the  power  of  giving  certificates  to  their  own  members 
until  they  had  got  a  document,  signed  by  three  other  Bap- 
tist Churches,  that  they  were  conscientiously  Anabaptists^ 
ov  rebaj^tizers^^hich.  of  course  all  such  denied.  In  1768 
a  law  was  made  by  which  the  proprietors  could  lay  a  tax 
upon  all  the  lands  for  the  support  of  the  town  minister. 
And  in  1770  three  hundred  and  ninety-eight  acres  of  land, 
owned  by  Baptists,  were  sold  to  pay  this  tax.  A  single 
trial  the  year  before  had  cost  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 
Li  fine  they  were  subjected  to  great  vexations  and  injustice. 

To  meet  this,  the  Baptists  of  Rhode  Island,  New  York, 
and  Philadelphia,  appointed  committees  of  remonstrance 
to  raise  money,  relieve  their  persecuted  brethren,  and  to 
awaken  a  spirit  in  favor  of  perfect  liberty  of  conscience  and 
the  separation  of  Church  and  State.  Isaac  Backus,  the 
general  agent  of  the  Baptists  for  this  purpose,  was  one 
whose  name  wiU  always  be  remembered  in  the  history  of 
'  Backus,  p.  186. 


54  COXTIXENTAL    CONGEESS,     1774. 

this  struggle  for  the  ability  and  zeal  with  which  he  united 
the  whole  influence  of  the  denomination  in  favor  at  once  of 
ci\'il  and  reUgious  fi-eedom,  most  usefully  to  the  cause  of 
both.' 

The  first  Continental  Congress  ever  held  was  in  1774,  in 
Philadelphia,  two  years  before  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence. It  had  not  been  in  session  ten  days  before  these 
comittees,  as  repi-esentatiA^es  of  the  denommation,  memorial- 
ized Congress  that  they  united  with  their  country  in  de- 
fense of  its  privileges,  and  besought  them  to  secure  at 
once  the  recognition  of  the  mallenahle  rights  of  conscience. 
Committees  were  appointed,  and  the  whole  subject  was  dis- 
cussed with  much  earnestness.  If  no  unmediate  result  fol- 
lowed, the  final  efiect  fully  realized  the  most  sanguine  hopes. 
For  a  tmie  one  of  the  leading  men  of  Massachusetts,  on  his 
return  from  the  Congress,  endeavored  to  use  the  matter  to 
excite  popular  j^rejudice  agamst  the  Baptists.  But  it  failed, 
and  only  showed  that  the  matter  had  not  dropped  before 
the  Continental  Congress  until  the  four  delegates  from  Mas- 
sachusetts had  pledged  themselves  "  to  use  thek  influence 
in  favor  of  the  rehgious  Hberty"  the  Baptists  there  con- 
tended for.  And  when,  at  the  meeting  of  the  Provmcial 
Congress  of  Massachusetts  shortly  afterward,  the  Baptists 
presented  themselves  and  requested  to  realize  the  good  ef- 
fect of  this  influence,  the  following  resolution  was  adopted, 
which  the  great  change  of  popular  feeling  fully  endorsed : 

"In  PROTiNCLiL  CoNGHESS,  December  9,  1774. 

"  On  readbig  the  memorial  of  the  Rev.  Isaac  Backus,  agent 
to  'he  Baptist  Churches  in  this  Government, 

Hesolced,  That  the  establishment  of  civil  and  reUgious 
1  ELildi-eth,  vol.  ii.  p.  577. 


CHURCH    AND    STATE MASSACHUSETTS.  55 

liberty  to  each  denomination  in  the  province  is  the  sincere 
wish  of  this  Congress ;  but  being  by  no  means  vested  with 
powers  of  civil  government,  whereby  they  can  redress  the 
grievances  of  any  person  whatever,  they  therefore  recom- 
mend to  the  Baptist  Churches  that  when  a  General  Assem- 
bly shall  be  convened  m  this  Colony,  they  lay  the  real 
grievances  of  said  churches  before  the  same  ;  when  and 
where  their  petition  will  most  certainly  meet  with  all  that 
attention  due  to  the  memorial  of  a  denomuiation  of  Chris- 
tians so  well  disposed  to  the  pubHc  weal  of  thek  country. 
"  By  order  of  the  Congress, 

"  John  Hancock,  President." 

Accordingly  the  Baptists  memorialized  the  next  session 
of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature,  1775.  In  domg  so  they 
said,  "Our  real  grievances  are,  that  we,  as  well  as  our 
fathers,  have  from  time  to  time  been  taxed  on  rehgious  ac- 
counts where  we  were  not  represented,  and  our  causes  have 
been  tried  by  interested  judges.  I^or  a  civil  Legislature  to 
impose  religious  taxes,  is,  toe  conceive,  a  power  ichich  their 
constituents  never  had  to  give,  and  therefore  going  entirely 
out  of  their  jurisdiction.  We  are  persuaded  that  an  entire 
freedom  from  bemg  taxed  by  civil  rulers  to  rehgious  wor- 
ship is  not  a  mere  favor  from  any  man  or  men  in  the  world, 
but  a  right  and  property  granted  us  by  God,  who  commands 
us  to  stand  fast  in  it.  We  should  wi'ong  our  consciences 
by  allowing  that  power  to  men  which  we  believe  belongs 
only  to  God." 

This  memorial  was  debated  and  referred  to  a  committee, 
who  reported  favorably,  and  a  bill  was  brought  in,  read 
once,  and  a  time  set  for  its  second  reading ;  but  being 
crowded  out  by  other  business,  the  Baptists  Avere  shuffled 


56  COXSTITUTION     OF    THE    ITXITED     STATES, 

for  a  time  out  of  Avhat  none  noAv  pretended  to  be  other  than 
just,  and  the  last  rehcs  of  Church  and  State  were  not  abol- 
ished in  Massachusetts  until  1832. 

But  it  Mas  thus  the  Baptists  defended  this  great  princi- 
ple in  the  forming  period  of  the  national  naind  and  character. 
The  Quakers  sympathized  in  then*  principles,  and  their 
weight  in  Philadelphia  was  great,  but  the  influence  of  the 
Baptists  was  more  conspicuous  from  the  active  part  they 
took,  as  chaplains,  and  soldiers,  and  advocates  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary struggle.  By  the  time  of  the  close  of  the  war  of 
Independence,  the  principles  of  religious  liberty  had  become 
almost  national.  In  1787  the  act  for  the  government  of 
the  ISTorth-west  Territory  pro^-ided  that  "no  person  should 
ever  be  molested  on  account  of  his  mode  of  worship  or  re- 
ligious sentiment  in  the  said  Tei-ritory."  Nothing,  how- 
ever, had  been  done  by  Congress  to  secure  religious  liberty 
elsewhere.  In  August,  1789,  therefore,  a  committee  of  the 
Baptist  Churches  in  Virginia  presented  an  address  to  Gen- 
eral TTashington  wherein  they  expressed  a  high  regard  for 
him,  but  "  a  fear  that  our  religious  rights  were  not  well  se- 
cured in  our  new  Constitution  of  government."  In  ansAver 
to  this  he  assured  them  of  his  readiness  to  nse  his  influence 
to  make  these  rights  indisputable,  declaring  that  the  relig- 
ious society  of  which  they  were  members  had  been  "through- 
out America  uniformly  the  persevering  promoters  of  the 
glorious  Revolution."  In  the  followmg  month,  accordingly, 
an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  was  passed  declaring  that 
Congress  should  "  make  no  law  respecting  any  establish- 
ment of  religion,  or  j^rohibiting  the  free  exercise  thereof"  ' 
Thus  was  the  whole  weight  of  the  example  of  the  general 
government  thrown  against  all  religious  establishments,  and 
1  Backus,  chap.  12. 


RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES.       57 

its  iufluence  secured  in  favor  of  the  free  exercise  of  the 
conscience  on  all  such  matters. 

About  this  time,  i.  e.  1788,  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  the 
United  States  adopted  a  "  Form  of  Goveiimient,"  in  which 
they  fully  and  distinctly  express  themselves  in  favor  of  per- 
fect liberty  of  conscience,  and  the  complete  separation  of 
Church  and  State. 

Up  to  this  tune  all  governments,  and  nearly  all  men, 
however  pious,  had  feared  that  if  religion  were  left  without 
other  support  than  the  fi'ee  choice  of  the  worshipers,  it 
would  dechne.  Nor  was  it  any  confidence  in  the  purity  of 
human  nature  that  had  led  Baptists,  so  long  before,  to  con- 
tend for  an  imrestrained  conscience  ;  rather  was  it  a  strong 
sense  of  the  want  which  all  men  feel  of  just  such  a  system 
as  the  Gospel  to  meet  their  deepest  necessities,  and  to  heal 
the  diseases  of  the  soul.  It  was  not  that  they  were  indif- 
ferent to  reUgion  or  to  truth,  but  because  they  knew  that 
while  the  sword  of  the  magistrate  might  produce  hypocrites, 
it  could  never  make  Christians.  It  was  not  even  that  they 
grudged  tithes,  but  because  they  relied  on  the  power  of  re- 
ligion to  support  worship,  and  felt  it  an  injury  and  an  insult 
to  conscience  to  make  men  pay  for  systems  in  which  they 
did  not  believe.  It  was  not  that  they  despised  human  gov- 
ernments, but  because  they  honored  the  government  and 
authority  of  God,  that  they  denied  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
magistrate  in  matters  of  religion.  At  the  present  day,  no 
principles  are  so  familiar  to  all  ears,  and  so  responded  to  by 
all  hearts,  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  this  land. 
They  spread  with  the  principles  of  American  independence, 
ffere  incorporated  in  the  Constitution  of  the  Union,  and 
now  belong,  without  important  practical  exceptions,  to  each 
of  the  States. 

3* 


58  EELIGIOtJS     LIBERTY     IN     EUROPE. 

The  elements  of  nature  are  oftentimes  most  powerftiUy 
at  work  -vvlieii  most  silent ;  and  it  was  by  quiet  influences 
upon  the  colonies,  such  as  have  been  portrayed,  from  the 
times  of  Roger  Williams  to  those  of  the  Revolutionary 
struggle,  that  the  principles  of  reUgioiis  hberty  became  in- 
corporated, not  only  in  the  statute  book  of  civil  law,  but  in 
the  religious  belief  and  conscience  of  the  United  States,  the 
great  unwritten  creed  of  American  Christianity.  The  only 
astonishment  and  difiiculty  now  with  many  of  the  readers 
of  this  work  will  be  to  conceive  that  the  rights  of  conscience 
have  ever  been  doubted  and  disputed. 

The  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  with  its  first  amend- 
ment, before  quoted,  placed  the  United  States  foremost  of 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth  in  recognizing  and  sustaining 
the  great  truths  of  rehgious  hberty.  Its  example  and  influ- 
ence have  been  more  powerftd  in  diflfasing  these  than  can 
readily  be  expressed.  Theii-  leaven  has  worked,  and  is 
working,  among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  and  producing 
the  most  astonishing  results. 

In  England,  untU  1829,  Dissenters  were  barely  tolerated. 
No  man  could  hold  any  civil  oflfice,  or  have  a  seat  in  ParUa- 
ment,  or  be  even  a  simple  collector  of  the  taxes,  without 
communing  in  the  Church  of  England  once  a  year.  Now 
the  Dissenters  have  the  largest  nimiber  of  worshipers.  It 
is  hardly  sixty  years  since  the  East  India  Company  possessed 
the  power,  and  openly  used  it,  of  preventing  missionaries 
from  sailing  in  English  vessels  for  their  possessions,  support- 
ing the  native  idolatries,  and  assuming  to  fi•o^v^l  on  and 
frustrate  all  attempts  at  conversion.  Now  this  is  abohshed. 
The  Test  and  Corporation  Acts  even  have  been  repealed ; 
the  Union  of  Church  and  State  is  every  year  gi\'ing  way  at 
some  new  point ;  Canada  is  secularizing  the  Chm-ch  lands 


EELIGIOUS    LIBERTY    IX    EUROPE.  59 

ynih  the  consent  of  the  home  government,  and  the  Dis- 
senters are  being  admitted  into  the  Universities.  If  the 
Madiai  are  persecuted  in  Italy,  or  an  Oncken  in  Germany 
— il^  in  any  part  of  Europe,  oppression  for  conscience'  sake 
is  carried  on,  next  to  America,  England  is  the  first  to  plead 
in  behalf  of  full  religious  liberty. 

The  voice  of  public  oinnion  is  now  heard  and  feared  on 
these  subjects  by  all  the  spiritual  tyrants  of  Europe.  Spain 
and  Italy  have  been  compelled  to  abandon  the  horrors  of 
the  Inquisition,  and  those  abodes  of  terror  to  disgorge  their 
prey.  Tlie  King  of  Prussia  is  understood  to  be  setting  his 
face  agamst  intolerance,  and  the  mmisters  of  the  Estab- 
lished Chui'ch  of  that  kingdom,  no  less  than  its  more  en- 
lightened members,  are  beginnmg  to  protest  against  infant 
baptism  being  compulsory,  either  to  avoid  persecutions  or 
to  secure  membership  m  the  Establishment.  France  has, 
by  oj)en  proclamation,  again  and  again  given  the  most  pub- 
lic and  positive  assurances  of  equal  religious  protection  to 
all,  and  if  these  assurances  are  still  in  a  measure  violated,  it 
is  only  by  temporary  intrigues  of  the  Jesuits,  which  sooner 
or  later  will  bring  their  own  retribution. 

At  this  moment  the  Mohammedan  empire,  whose  persecut- 
ing sword  used  to  be  the  horror  and  scourge  of  Christen- 
dom, has  entered  into  a  treaty  with  France  and  England 
guaranteeing  throughout  its  wide  dominions  perfect  religious 
liberty,  and  England  is  understood  to  be  seekmg  the  recog- 
nition of  the  rights  of  conscience  as  a  part  of  the  xaw  of 
nations.  In  Barmah,  where,  thirty  years  ago,  Judsi.n  was 
persecuted  well-nigh  to  death,  religious  Hberty  is  now  fully 
enjoyed.  In  China  an  encroachment  upon  this  great  right 
produced  the  rising  of  that  free  party  which  is  now  so 
rapidly  diifusing  the  name,  at  least,  of  Chi-ist,  and  many 


60  CONVERTED    CHUECU-MEMBERS HIP. 

principles  of  His  leiigion  through  that  vast  empu-e.  In 
deed,  the  leader  of  that  movement  is  one  who  for  months 
studied  Christianity  trader  a  Baptist  missionary  at  Canton, 
and,  it  is  said,  even  apphed  for  baptism,  but  was  refused. 
Thus  far,  at  least,  has  the  whole  world  been  coming  round 
to  these  great  truths,  first  embodied,  vindicated,  and  main- 
tained by  the  Baptists.  Except  the  Russian  dominions, 
there  is  hardly  a  country  of  importance  in  the  world  that 
has  not  felt  the  power  of  this  prmciple.  Progress  has 
been  made  which  a  hundred  years  ago  would  have  been 
impossible  to  anticipate ;  and  from  America  to  China,  from 
England  to  India,  doctrmes  of  religious  hberty  have  been 
carried  home  to  the  hearts  of  many  millions. 


CHAPTEK    III. 

A     COJ^VERTED     C  H  U  R  C  H  -  M  E  M  B  E  R  S  H  I  P  . 

NoTHiXG  will  more  forcibly  impress  the  mind  of  a  pious 
American,  traveling  in  Europe,  than  the  different  religious 
atmospheres  inhaled  by  the  masses  on  the  two  sides  of  the 
Atlantic.  It  is  a  great  difierence  that  he  wUl  feel  when  he 
enters  a  Protestant  as  distinct  from  a  Roman  CathoUc 
State.  But  there  is  a  more  striking  distinction  between 
American  Christianity,  as  a  whole,  and  that  of  the  continent 
of  Europe,  where  Church  Establishments  are  in  every  coim- 
try.  Here  a  man's  religious  professions  are  the  result  of 
personal  con\dction ;  there  they  appear  so  uniformly  as  the 
effect  of  the  law,  routine,  or  instruction,  as  seldom  to  imply 
earnest  individual  piety  at  all.  Xot  that  dcA^otion  is  lacking 
in  Europe  ;  but  simply  that  the  most  rehgious  do  not  pro- 


ROMAN     CATHOLIC     PROGRESS.  61 

fess  more  than  others,  those  utterly  destitute  of  it  being  en- 
titled to  become  its  professors  and  its  ministers  as  much  as 
any  others.  Dr.  Baird  has  observed  that  he  found  the  most 
intelligent  persons  in  Europe  quite  at  a  loss  to  comprehend 
this  difterent  feature  of  Christianity  in  the  two  continents.' 
Among  all  classes  of  Americans,  however  pious  or  however 
worldly,  and  as  a  general  tlung,  of  whatever  denomination, 
the  conviction  seems  natural  that  a  man  does  not  become  a 
Christian  merely  in  consequence  of  being  born  in  a  particular 
State,  or  inducted  m  mfancy  mto  a  nominal  connection  with 
some  church,  but  by  personal  choice  and  earnest  rehgious 
character.  All  through  Europe,  except  among  certain  small, 
well-marked  evangeUcal  denominations,  the  idea  is  cuiTcnt 
that  every  one  born  in  a  Christian  land  must  be  considered 
a  member  of  the  National  Church,  no  matter  what  his 
private  belief  or  character. 

Here  pubhc  sentiment,  and  the  luiAvritten  Christianity 
of  the  country,  seem  to  suggest  instinctively  that  none 
ought  to  be  received  as  full  members  of  any  church,  or  re- 
garded as  true  Christians,  with  whom  sound  morality  and 
steady  piety  is  not  a  matter  of  estabhshed  personal  influence 
and  supremacy.  We  are  not  miaware  that  there  are  several 
exceptions  to  this  spirit ;  and  in  some  cases  a  settled  pur- 
pose is  evident  to  resist  what  is  esteemed  an  American  in- 
fluence encroaching  into  the  domain  of  religion.  In  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  for  instance,  this  detennination  is 
most  strongly  manifested  on  the  part  of  most  of  the  spiritual 
guides ;  and  yet  to  any  one  brought  up  with  Papists  in 
Europe,  the  general  change  of  sentiment  among  the  laity  in 
this  direction,  which  by  degrees  manifests  itself,  is  greater 
than  could  possibly  have  been  expected.  Roman  Catholic- 
'  Religion  in  America,  book  v.  chap.  4. 


62  PROGRESS    IX     THE    EPISCOPAL     CHTTRCH. 

ism  not  only  loses  its  hold  on  multitudes  m'Iio  come  to  this 
country,  but  it  is  altogether  a  different  thing  for  those  who 
remain  in  its  communion  from  what  it  is  either  in  Europe, 
or  in  Mexico,  or  in  Canada.  As  when  one  who  has  long 
lived  in  a  flat  coimtry,  climbing  a  mountain  top  on  a  clear 
day,  feels  by  the  play  of  his  lungs  that  the  atmospheric 
pressure  is  not  the  same,  and  that  he  breathes  a  different 
air ;  so  now  even  a  Roman  Catholic  on  coming  to  this 
country  finds  himself  in  a  perfectly  new  religious  atmosphere, 
one  that  has  in  it  the  pressure  of  a  greater  and  more  direct 
personal  responsibility.  The  priest  is  no  longer  the  mere 
tool  of  the  bishop,  nor  the  layman  of  the  priest.  It  is  not 
simply  that  both  are  more  free,  but  also  that  both  have  a 
stronger  sense  of  direct  personal  responsibifity  to  God ;  not 
simply  that  the  layman  wUl  not  perform  what  he  considers 
an  arbitrary  penance,  but  that  he  will  claim,  his  right  to 
read  the  Word  of  God.  And  probably  more  Bibles  are 
circulated  and  read  by  the  Roman  Catholics  m  this  country 
than  in  any,  perhaps,  of  all  the  countries  of  Europe.  Large 
numbers  of  copies  of  the  Douay  version  are  freely  to  be  ob- 
tained M-ith  the  approbation  of  the  priests  themselves. 

This  silent  change,  giving  to  every  man's  religion  a  closer 
personal  character,  is  also  manifested  in  its  degree  in  the 
Episcopal  Church.  So  long  as  it  Avas  a  national  institution, 
it  was  necessary  that  it  should  admit  every  one  to  its  priv- 
ileges, and  in  England  to  this  day  the  laws  compel  a  cler- 
gyman to  administer  the  communion  to  all  baptized  in 
infancy,  and  without  reference  to  personal  character,  pro- 
vided they  are  not  proved  to  be  scandalous  offenders.  The 
trouble  and  expense  of  establishing  this  proof  are  so  great 
as  to  leave  even  the  most  pious  minister  very  little  power 
to  withhold  this  official  testimonial  of  the  communion  of  the 


THE     MEECERSBURG     SCHOOL.  63 

Church.  By  the  same  laAV,  however  neglectful  they  may 
have  been  of  every  voluntary  mark  of  Christian  character, 
he  is  compelled  to  proclaun  them  when  they  die  his  be- 
loved brethren  who  have  "  departed  this  life  in  sure  and 
certain  hope  of  a  joyful  resurrection." 

But  in  this  country  the  entire  separation  of  the  Church 
from  the  State  has  prodiiced  a  very  marked  alteration  and 
improvement  in  the  character  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  It 
is  not  merely  that  there  is  a  vast  mcrease  of  lay  power,  but 
a  deeper  sense  of  personal  interest  and  responsibility  rest- 
ing upon  the  communicants  as  a  class.  So  it  is  not  a  matter 
of  simple  form  and  routine  for  their  young  people  on  arriv- 
ing at  a  certain  age  to  be  confirmed  and  partake  of  the  com- 
munion, but  to  a  greater  extent  than  heretofore  those  only 
whose  hearts  are  touched  "O'ith  a  personal  and  supreme 
interest  in  religion  receive  the  symbols.  Tiiie,  all  this  im- 
provement is  rather  in  practice  than  in  theory,  and  the  ten- 
dency among  the  clergy  in  some  sections  has  been  of  late 
years  to  magnify  and  restore  an  exploded  reverence  for  a 
merely  ritual  religion.  Yet  this  is  a  movement  with  which 
the  masses  of  the  people  of  that  denomination  have  but 
httle  sympathy.  But  some  kind  of  knowledge  and  earnest 
regard  for  religion,  some  indications  of  personal  piety  are 
required  more  generally  than  ever  before,  while  in  many  of 
the  Churches  their  ministers  preach  the  doctrines  of  the 
new  birth  and  Christian  conflict  ^vith  the  utmost  clearness ; 
nor  would  they  think  of  recommending  the  people  of  their 
charge  to  appear  at  the  table  of  the  Lord  mthout  the  e^i- 
dences  of  conversion. 

In  the  German  Reformed  Church,  Drs.  ISre\an  and  Schaif, 
of  the  Mercersburg  School,  may  contend  that  it  is  an  error 
to  attempt  to  have  a  Church  below  composed  wholly  of 


64  THE    BAPTISTS. 

those  savingly  converted  to  God ;  but  tliis  again  is  rather 
the  eftbrt  of  a  few  of  the  clergy  to  bring  back  then-  people 
to  a  state  of  things  current  a  himdred  years  ago,  and  in 
Europe,  than  a  movement  generally  sustamed  by  the 
Churches.  It  is,  in  fact,  an  eiFort  to  galvauize  new  life  into 
infant  baptism.  But  the  great  mass  of  the  reformed  denom- 
inations in  this  country,  of  German  origin,  now  hold  to  the 
l^ropriet  J  of  requiring  personal  faith  jjrior  to  full  commim- 
ion.  The  great  numerical  bulk  of  American  Churches  are 
imited  on  the  same  point  of  a  voluntary  and  converted 
Church  membership.  So  wide-spread  indeed  is  the  con- 
viction that  unconverted  persons  should  not  be  communi- 
cants, that  very  few  of  them  would  think  it  right  to  par- 
take if  invited.  Denominations  seem  to  be  unpopular  in 
proportion  as  they  favor  an  unconverted  membership. 
AU  of  them,  mcluding  Roman  Catholics,  Unitarians,  and 
even  Episcopahans,  are  sho'ttm  by  the  last  census  to  em- 
brace not  above  a  sixth  of  the  whole  Church-going  popu- 
lation, Now  it  is,  if  we  mistake  not,  this  wide-spread  con- 
viction that  Christianity  does  not  consist  in  forms  and 
ceremonies,  but  in  the  personal  surrender  of  the  heart  to 
God,  and  that  the  converted  alone  should  be  communicants, 
which  constitutes  the  great  superiority  of  American  over 
European  Christianity.^ 

But  however  simple,  clear,  and  natural  all  this  may  now 
appear,  it  was  not  so  a  hundred  years  ago.  At  that  tune 
the  Baptists  stood  alone,  the  only  denomination  in  this 
country  that  made  a  credible  profession  of  personal  piety 
a  pre-reqiiisite  to  their  communion.  It  was  then  generally 
esteemed  a  Baptist  peculiarity.  It  is  so  treated  by  Knapp 
in  his  Theology.^  He  admits  that  the  Novations,  Dona- 
•  See  Baird's  Relig.  in  America,  b.  v.  c.  4.      '  Sect.  135,  2,  and  141,  2. 


THE    METHODISTS.  65 

tists,  Waldenses,  AVickliffites,  and  Hussites,  also  held  it,  and 
that  their  labors  "  had,  U2:»on  the  "vvhole,  a  mighty  beneficial 
efiect ;"  that  "  in  times  of  ignorance  and  unbelief  they 
have  been  the  depositories  of  uncorrupted  Christianity,"  and 
that  "  without  them  the  Reformation  would  never  have 
taken  place."  Yet  he  maintams,  in  common  with  most  of 
the  Pedobaptists  of  Europe,  that  "the  external  visible 
Church  can  not  be  a  society  consisting  of  pious  Christians 
only,  but  rather  a  imrsery  designed  to  raise  up  many  for 
the  mvisible  Kingdom." 

A  hundred  years  ago,  except  Whitefield,  discarded  as  a 
"  new  light,"  there  was  scarcely  an  evangehcal  preacher  to 
be  found  in  the  Episcopal  Church  in  this  country,  or  one 
who  considered  any  thing  more  as  necessary  to  regeneration 
or  to  make  a  man  a  Christian,  than  the  baptism  of  his  infancy. 

It  was  not  mitil  within  seventy  years  that  the  Methodists, 
now  so  efficient  in  evangelical  labors,  considered  themselves 
as  other  than  a  mere  converted  society  m  an  unconverted 
Church,  from  which  they  received  the  communion,  and  wdth 
which  they  identified  themselves.  They  have  therefore  not 
unnaturally  borrowed  many  expressions  and  views  from  the 
Church  of  England.  Even  John  Wesley  tried  hard  to  up- 
hold its  teachings,  on  the  subject  of  Baptismal  regeneration, 
in  language  which  no  Methodist  now  teaches.^  Their  stand- 
ard writers*  regard  baptism  as  the  entrance  of  the  visible 
Church.  But  by  a  happy  mconsistency,  produced  by  their 
evangelical  preaching,  they  do  not  now  seem  to  admit  that 
persons  ought  to  be  complete  members  until  after  conver- 
sion. The  language  of  their  book  of  Discipline  is,  however 
not  decisive,^  and  "  seekers"  are  often  urged  to  partake  of 

1  See  Wesley's  Miscellaneous  Works,  vol.  ii.  pp.  157,  8. 

2  See  Watson's  Theology,  vol.  ii.  pp.  595,  626,  3  Chapter  ii.  sec.  2. 


66  ARCHIBALD    ALEXAXDER. 

the  comniitnion  as  a  suitable  means  of  grace  to  this 
day. 

Among  the  Presb}i:erians  it  is  just  about  a  hundred  years 
since  Gilbert  Tennent  was  foimdmg  Princeton  Seminary  to 
educate  evangelical  ministers.  At  that  time,  so  far  from 
conversion  being  esteemed  necessary  to  full  communion,  it 
was  a  matter  of  formal  discussion  whether  it  was  proper  to 
require  the  credible  profession  of  a  change  of  heart  in 
the  ministry,  and  considered  that  it  was  not.  At  the  present 
time,  no  body  of  Christians  are  more  clear  and  judicious 
upon  this  point  than  the  Prcsbytei'ians,  both  those  of  the 
old  and  those  of  the  new  school.  Yet  even  now  there  is 
nothing  in  their  confession  of  f:\ith  to  prevent  the  recej^tion 
of  unconverted  persons  as  communicants.  The  Established 
Church  of  Scotland,  with  a  similar  confession,  does  not  re- 
quire conversion.  The  change,  then,  is  one  in  the  spirit  of 
the  people,  or  the  age,  not  in  the  constitution  of  their 
churches,  or  the  text  of  then-  laws,  and  at  the  time  to  which 
we  refer,  the  Tennents  were  jeered  at  as  "new  lights,"  and 
mere  enthusiasts.  To  this  day,  their  form  of  government' 
declares  that  all  their  baptized  are  members  of  the  Church, 
and  "  are  bound  to  perform  all  the  duties  of  church  mem- 
bers." Thus  it  is  quite  clear  that  however  evangehcal  this 
excellent  body  of  Christians  may  now  be  in  practice,  their 
Confession,  and,  above  all,  their  infant  baj^tism,  have  an  oppo- 
site tendency,  dra-^-ing  them  back  toward  a  system  Avliich 
would  mtroduce  the  world  mto  the  Church,  by  making  tho 
terms  of  admission  too  regardless  of  personal  piety. 

In  the  life  of  the  late  venerable  Dr.  Archibald  Alexander, 
of  Princeton,  is  found  a  record  by  himself  of  the  struggles 
through  which  his  mmd  passed  on  the  subject  of  infant 
'  Book  ii.  of  Discipline,  chap.  1. 


PROGRESS     AMOXG    PKES  B  YTERI AJTS  .  67 

baptism.  It  refers  to  a  period  while  he  was  President  of 
Hampden  Sidney  College,  Virginia,  from  1797  to  1799, 
about  ten  or  twelve  years  before  his  appointment  to  the 
more  important  post  he  so  long  and  so  honorably  tilled  at 
the  head  of  the  Princeton  Theological  Seminary.  "About 
this  tune,"  he  says,  "  I  fell  mto  doubts  respectmg  the  au- 
thority of  inflmt  bajitism.  The  origin  of  these  doubts  Avas 
171  too  rigid  notions  as  to  the  purity  of  the  Churchy  \nX\i  a 
behef  that  receivmg  infants  had  a  corruptmg  tendency.  I 
communicated  my  doubts  very  freely  to  my  friend  Mr.  Lyle, 
and  to  Mr.  Speece  (Presbyterian  mhiisters,  who  were  his 
assistants  m  the  college),  and  found  that  they  both  had  been 
troubled  by  the  same.  We  talked  much  privately  on  the 
subject,  and  often  conversed  A\'ith  others  in  hope  of  getting 
some  new  light.  At  length  Mr.  Lyle  and  I  determined  to 
give  up  the  practice  of  baptizmg  infants  until  we  should  re- 
ceive more  tight.  This  determination  we  publicly  commu- 
nicated to  our  jieople  (churches  in  the  vicmity  which  they 
statedly  supplied  as  pastors),  and  left  them  to  take  such 
measures  as  they  deemed  expedient."  We  may  hereafter 
notice  the  rest  of  the  remarks  by  Dr.  Alexander.  At 
present  we  desire  only  to  quote  this  to  show  that  a  belief 
in  the  "  corrupting  tendency  of  infant  baptism  led  Dr.  A.  at 
one  time  very  seriously  to  think  and  speak  of  "  joming  the 
Baptists,"  and  that  he  could  not  get  rid  of  these  impressions 
without  lowering  his  views  "  as  to  the  purity  of  the  Church." 
He  intimates  in  fact  that  the  Baptist  notions  on  the  subject 
are  "  too  rigid."  We  have  been  happy  to  believe  that  our 
Presbyterian  brethren  have  now  practically  adopted  the 
principle  of  admitting  to  fuU  communion  those  only  who 
give  credible  evidence  of  personal  piety.  This  is  what  Bap- 
tists have  ever  maintained,  and  we  should  be  sorry  to  learn 


68  CONGREGATIONALISTS. 

that  tlie  denomination  of  which  Dr.  A.  was  so  distinguished 
an  ornament  had  abandoned  it. 

A  hundred  years  ago,  nearly  all  the  Congregational 
Churches  of  Massachusetts  were  passing  through  the  dark- 
est part  of  that  cloud  which  drove  off  ultimately  so  many 
into  Unitarianism.  For  sixty  or  seventy  years  longer,  it 
overwhelmed  with  confusion  all  attempts  to  establish  the 
denomination  on  the  basis  of  a  converted  membership. 
That  rare  and  holy  man,  Jonathan  Edwards,  was  dismissed 
from  liis  church  at  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  for  no  other 
reason  than  the  maintenance  of  these  very  views,  and  was, 
at  the  time  of  which  we  speak,  laboring  in  exile,  on  this  ac- 
count, among  the  North  American  Indians.  The  teachings 
of  Edwards,  Whitefield,  and  the  Tennents,  which  had  led  to 
"the  great  awakening,"  had  also  produced  the  desire  in 
many  quarters  that  the  system  then  current  of  admitting 
all  persons  of  reputable  life,  who  had  been  sprinkled  m  in- 
fancy, to  the  communion-table,  should  be  abandoned.  Sev- 
eral churches  had  adopted  Edwards'  views,  but  the  great 
body  were  opposed  to  them. 

Large  numbers  of  these  "  new  lights,"  as  they  were 
stigmatized,  became  Baptists,  however,  on  this  very  account. 
All  the  way  between  Massachusetts  and  Georgia,  no  other 
denomination  held  this  principle  of  church-membership  ;  nor 
was  it  until  within  about  thirty  years,  that  the  Congrega- 
tionalists  became  completely  separated  from  the  Unitarians, 
and  the  most  fundamental  part  of  their  present  constitution 
came  to  be  a  featiire  of  their  denominational  character.  Dr. 
Baird  has  sho^vTi  that  Unitarianism  originally  grew  out  of  a 
dislike  to  the  practice  of  requii'uig  evidence  of  piety  in  can- 
didates for  admission  to  the  churches.^ 

'  Religion  in  America,  book  vii.  chap.  3. 


UNITARIAN     VIEWS.  69 

In  1790  there  was  but  one  Congregational  Church  in 
Boston  that  maintained  orthodox  views ;  and  so  cold  had  it 
become  as  to  be  unable  to  keep  up  any  prayer-meeting. 
When  its  lamp  of  piety  was  weU-nigh  extmguished,  it  was 
the  zeal  incidentally  imparted  to  those  noble  and  struggling 
brethren  at  a  Baptist  Church  that  rekindled  the  smolder- 
ing fire  in  a  Church  "  beloved  for  their  fathers'  sakes." 
Thus  in  due  time  they  were  enabled  to  throw  off  the  uicu- 
bus  which  had  so  long  paralyzed  their  movements.  But  in 
1812  aU  but  two  of  these  churches  were  still  Unitarian. 

The  views  of  our  Congregational  brethren,  therefore,  on 
this  subject  of  the  relation  of  the  baptized  to  the  visible 
churches,  have  been  extremely  unsettled  and  contradictory 
at  different  periods,  and  in  the  view  of  different  authorities. 
The  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts  holds  that  part  of  the 
communicants  yviih  which  the  majority  of  the  parish  concur, 
to  be  "  the  Church,"  and  on  this  decision  Unitarians  now 
hold  many  houses  of  worship  and  endowments.  This  must 
have  been  upon  the  princii^le  that  the  children,  being  bap- 
tized, are  a  part  of  the  Church.  Infant  baptism  has  always 
been  held  by  them  to  produce  some  kind  of  connection  ^ith 
it,  though  precisely  what,  it  is  hard  to  define.  Or  rather, 
it  has  been  with  them,  as  with  many  other  denominations, 
at  those  periods  in  which  piety  has  shone  the  brightest,  the 
effect  of  mfant  baptism  has  been  least  perceptible,  while  in 
proportion  as  personal  religion  has  declined,  the  value  pxit 
upon  the  ceremony  has  increased.  For  the  first  thirty  years 
after  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  none  of  those  bajDtized  in 
infancy  were,  in  most  of  the  churches,  admitted  to  the  com- 
munion, or  other  privileges  of  membership,  until  they  pro- 
fessed personal  piety.  But  in  1657,  a  Synod  was  called  in 
Boston  to  consider  this  matter,  in  special  reference  to  the 


70  PROGKESS     OF     BAPTIST     VIKWS, 

right  of  voting  in  the  town  meetings — a  poUtical  franchise, 
yet  permitted  only  to  Church  members.  They  decided  that 
the  baptized,  as  such,  ought  to  be  considered  members  of 
the  Church,  under  its  discipline,  and  should  be  admitted  to 
all  the  privileges  excejit  communion.  Even  thLs  last  prerog- 
ative was  generally  accorded  to  them  a  few  years  later. 
About  a  hundred  and  fifty  churches  ha^nng  been  thus  led 
Dff  into  Unitarianism,  the  orthodox  Congregationalists 
have,  amid  a  variety  of  theories,  turned  practically  to  the 
plan  of  admitting  to  chiirch-priAoleges  such  only  as  give 
credible  e\'idence  of  conversion.  Dr.  Bushnell,  in  his  work 
on  Christian  Nurture,  no  less  than  Dr.  Nevins,  has  clearly 
showni  that  the  Congregationalists  have  never  had  any  well- 
settled  theory  as  to  the  precise  relations  of  the  baptized  to 
the  Church  ;  but  that  the  views  of  Edwards  and  their  pres- 
ent course  are  essentially  "  Baptist  in  theory,"  and  ought  to 
lead  those  who  hold  them  to  become  so  in  fact.  The  sim- 
ple principle  of  behevers'  baptism  naturally  makes  a  credi- 
ble profession  of  personal  piety  pre-requisite  to  visible 
church-membership  ;  and  it  has  been  in  a  very  great  meas- 
ure the  bold  and  fearless  manner  in  which  our  fathers  up- 
held this  truth  by  preaching  and  by  practice,  by  which  the 
whole  Christian  world  has  been  so  greatly  refoiTned,  and 
the  religious  sentiment  of  the  country  changed  in  its  favor. 
It  has  been  worth  all  the  prayers,  struggles,  and  suffer- 
ings which  it  has  cost,  to  effect  what  has  been  accom- 
phshed.  What  Baptist  can  look  back  upon  the  last  century, 
and  view  the  great  change  wrought  in  pubHc  opinion,  and 
m  all  the  prevailing  denominations,  ^nthout  being  ready  to 
exclaim,  "  What  hath  God  WTOught  ?"  Never,  perhaps,  in 
the  history  of  the  Church,  has  the  gi-eat  truth  of  a  convert- 
ed  church-membership  been  so  clearly  taught  as  at  the 


PROGRESS    IN    EUROPE.  71 

present  day.  It  is  si:)reading  on  every  side.  Where  mis- 
sions are  established  by  the  evangehcal  denominations 
abroad,  it  is  planted,  and  none  are  admitted  as  communi- 
cants until  they  give  evidence  of  being  personally  and  sav- 
ingly interested  in  the  truths  of  the  Gospel.  In  England 
this  principle  has  an  entii-e  ascendency  among  the  evangeli- 
cal Dissenters,  and  in  all  their  missions,  while  many  of  the 
"Episcopalians  uphold  it  in  all  but  practice,  and  through  the 
circulation  of  such  tracts  as  those  of  Leigh  Richmond  and 
others,  spread  it  among  all  classes,  and  indeed  all  nations. 
In  France  and  S^^dtzerland,  the  writings  of  3ilerle  D'Au- 
bigne,  and  men  of  that  theological  school,  open  it  to  the 
large  classes  of  readers.  Throughout  a  large  part  of  Ger- 
many, Denmark,  and  Sweden,  it  is  spreading  through  the 
labors  of  men  like  Oncken  and  his  associates.  While  in 
Prussia,  the  present  King,  as  head  of  the  National  Church, 
has  within  a  few  months  issued  a  document  of  much  signifi- 
cance, announcmg  his  "  determination  to  place  his  mlierited 
authority"  in  the  hands  of  "  ajjostolically-foi-med  churches  ;" 
that  is,  as  he  goes  on  to  explain,  "•  churches  of  small  appa- 
rent size,  in  each  of  which  the  life,  the  order,  and  the  offices 
of  the  Univei'sal  Church  are  brought  into  activity,  in  sliort 
independent  self-increasing  creations,  by  which,  as  with  liv- 
ing stones,  the  Apostles  of'  the  Lord  commenced  building." 
Doubtless  the  researches  and  communications  of  such  men 
as  Neander  and  Bimsen,  no  less  than  those  of  Oncken,  have 
in  part  produced  these  salutary  convictions. 

It  is  a  pleasant  and  a  glorious  thing  to  see  human  learn- 
ing and  power  coming  round  at  length  to  concede  and  to 
support,  in  the  very  same  terms,  what  for  centuries  our 
fathers  have  contended  and  suffered  for  all  over  the  world, 
i.  e.,  that  every  true  Church  of  God  is  built  up  of  Uvely 


V2  PROGEESS    IN    EUROPE. 

stones  a  spiritual  house.  Far  be  it  from  us  to  undervalue 
the  labors  and  principles  of  aU  other  evangehcal  Christians 
in  bringing  about  a  healthy  state  of  religious  opinion  on 
this  unportant  point.  Every  sermon  preached  on  regenera- 
tion has  contributed  to  this  result.  But  to  us  it  seems  clear 
that  if  the  evangelical  rehgion  of  other  denominations  is  in 
favor  of  the  truth  in  question,  the  practices  of  Pedobaptists 
are  essentially  opposed  to  it.  In  a  word,  Baptists  alone  can 
consistently  advocate  a  church-membership  composed  ex- 
clusively of  those  who  make  a  credible  profession  of  per- 
sonal piety.  It  is  necessary  for  the  sake  of  their  other 
principles.  But  all  Pedobaptists  hold  it  only  by  a  happy 
inconsistency  with  theirs.  For  if  infant  baptism  does  not 
entitle  its  recipients  to  become  -visible  church-members, 
what  does  it  effect  ?  Just  now  all  tliis  may  be  called  the 
popular  sentiment  of  the  whole  country,  but  the  time  might 
soon  come,  should  the  practice  of  infant  baptism  remain, 
when  all  should  retrograde.  This,  the  late  declension  of 
evangelical  sentiments  in  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  the 
wiitmgs  of  the  Mercersburg  School,  mdicate  but  too  plainly. 
Dr.  Baird,  in  his  "Religion  in  America,"  rej^resents  many  per- 
sons in  Europe  as  utterly  unable  to  comprehend  the  relation 
which  the  children  of  pious  parents  sustain  to  the  churches 
in  this  country.  He  speaks  of  it  as  one  practically  "invisible" 
in  all  evangelical  communions,  and  presses,  as  the  advantage 
accruing,  that  the  miconveited  "  occupy  their  proper  place." 
Thus  on  the  one  hand  mfant  baptism  is  j^erpetuaUy  draw 
ing  all  these  chm-ches  into  the  vortex  of  a  mere  ritual  rehg 
ion,  while  on  the  other,  evangelical  truth,  so  far  as  it  pre- 
vails, leads  the  people  to  become,  as  Dr.  Xevin  and  Dr. 
BushneU  both  show,  "  ^Baptist  in  tJieory,''''  even  where  they 
neglect  to  become  so  in  practice. 


SAFETY     OF    UNBAPTIZED    II^FANTS.  73 

CHAPTEE    lY. 

SACEAME>T"S    INOPERATIVE    WITHOUT    CHOICE   AIND   FAITH. 

Chevalier  Buxsex  in  his  work  called  "  Hippolytus  <and 
his  Age," '  says,  "  The  superstition  that  such  children  of 
Christian  parents  as  die  of  tender  age,  unhaptized,  are  under 
damnation,  from  which  they  must  be  rescued  by  baptism, 
IS  to  be  put  down  forever."  That  is,  we  suppose,  if  it  can 
be,  whUe  the  practice  of  infant  baptism  is  retained.  We 
may  grant  that  well-informed  persons  have  by  degrees  given 
up  the  idea  in  question,  but  this  has  been  because  they  have 
become  Tv^ser  than  the  system  which,  as  Coleridge  has 
shown,  naturally  implies  it.  A  century  ago  there  were  few 
Pedobaptists  probably,  in  any  denomination,  who  did  not 
suppose  that  baptism  rendered  the  mfant  more  safe.  At 
that  time  there  was  among  them  all  a  strong  tendency  to 
regard  both  the  ordinances  of  our  religion  as  good  works 
to  be  performed  as  means  to  procure  grace  and  conversion, 
rather  than  as  expression,  of  a  faith  already  H\'ing.  We 
have  traced  in  the  last  chapter  the  extent  to  which  a  more 
appropriate  view  has  come  to  be  taken  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per, and  the  steps  by  which  this  change  has  been  brought 
about ;  so  that  now  the  bulk  of  evangelical  Christians  re- 
gai-d  it  as  the  appropriate  s^Tiibol,  but  not  the  mei'itorious 
means  or  procuring  cause  of  true  faith.  It  is  difficult  to 
conceive  why  this  change  of  views  should  not  be  extended 
to  both  ordinances — why  tliose  who  are  not  esteemed  fit  for 
one  should  yet  be  regarded  as  proper  subjects  for  the 
other.     To  refuse  the  Lord's  Supper  to  the  unconverted, 

I  Vol.  iiL  p.  212. 
4 


74  SACRAMEiS'TS     VITALIZED     BY    FAITH. 

and  yet  to  include  them  within  the  pale  of  the  ^dsible 
Chi;rch  by  baptism,  is  an  inconsistency  that  can  not  stand. 
Time  will  soon  kill  it,  if  it  does  not  die  ia  any  other  way. 
TTe  know  that  of  the  multitudes  Avho  now  practice  infant 
baptism,  comparatively  few  in  this  country  believe  baptismal 
regeneration ;  but  it  is  not  so  in  Europe ;  and  in  proportion 
as  any  utility  whatever  is  attached  to  it,  both  the  necessity 
and  the  power  of  somethmg  other  than  personal  faith  to 
make  the  condition  "  more  safe"  is  presupposed.  In  this 
way  the  ceremony  cuts  at  the  root  of  the  great  doctrine  and 
work  of  the  Reformation.  Let  any  ong  read  the  thuleenth 
article  of  the  Ej^iscopal  Church  in  relation  to  good  works 
before  justification,  and  say  if,  by  every  fair  rule  of  inter- 
pretation, infant  baptism  does  not  stand  in  opposition  to  its 
principles. 

The  blood  which  goes  into  the  lungs  a  dark  inert  mass, 
poisoned  mth  oai'bonic  acid,  comes  fi-om  them  of  a  bright 
scarlet,  ha^■ing  parted  with  its  poison  and  absorbed  the  oxy- 
gen of  the  atmosphere.  It  is  thus  \4talized,  and  made 
capable  of  sustaining  life.  So  in  the  gospel  the  sacraments 
need  to  be  vitalized  by  a  livmg  Faith,  in  the  experience 
of  each  professor,  without  which  they  only  carry  with  them 
poison  and  death  into  every  ramification  of  the  spiritual 
system  to  which  they  extend. 

If  any  one  doubt  the  tendency  of  infant  baptism  to  in- 
fuse a  poisonous  mfluence  into  even  the  most  evangelical 
creed,  let  hun  but  notice  the  terms  in  which  it  is  spoken  of  in 
all  Protestant  symbols.  The  Lutheran  Confession  drawn  up 
by  Melancthon,  approved  by  Luther,  and  adopted  by  the 
Diet  of  Augsburg,  "  the  mother  symbol  of  the  Reformation," 
as  it  has  been  termed,  says  (Ai't.  9),  concerning  baptism,  that 
"  it  is  necessary  to  solvation,"  and  that  "  children  are  to  be 


BAPTISMAL     EEGEXERATION.  75 

baptized  who,  being  offered  unto  God  in  baptism,  are  re- 
ceived into  the  favor  of  God."  It  condemns  the  Anabap- 
tists "  who  prohibit  the  baptism  of  children,  and  affirm  that 
they  can  be  saved  without  baptism."  In  Luther's  Cate- 
chism, it  is  expressly  taught  in  words,  that  "  by  its  effects 
our  sins  are  forgiven,  our  souls  are  delivered  from  the 
power  of  death  and  Satan ;  and  eternal  happiness  is  be- 
stowed on  all  w^ho  beheve  that  God  means  to  do  all  that 
He  has  said  and  promised,"  The  Augsburg  Confession  is 
to  this  day  the  standard  of  the  Lutherans  and  Moravians ; 
it  has  been  adopted  by  the  major  part  of  Protestant  Eu- 
rope, on  the  Continent,  and  its  language  in  this  respect,  is 
fully  sustained  by  the  Confessions  of  Bohemia,  Saxony, 
"Wurtembeg,  Helvetia  and  Sueveland. 

In  the  Episcopal  Churches  of  England  and  of  America, 
immediately  before  the  baptism  of  each  chUd,  it  is  solemnly 
prayed  that  the  "  infant  coming  to  holy  baptism  may  re- 
ceive remission  of  sin  by  spiritual  regeneration ;"  and 
again,  "  Sanctify  this  water  to  the  mystical  washing  away 
of  sins ;"  whUe  the  parents  are  immediately  afterward  sent 
back  wdth  the  assurance  that  "this  child  is  regenerated 
and  grafted  into  the  body  of  Christ's  Church,"  and  are  called 
upon  to  give  thanks  to  God  that  "  it  hath  pleased  Him  to 
regenerate  him  with  His  Holy  Spirit,  to  receive  him  for  His 
own  child  by  adoption,  and  to  incorjDorate  him  into  His 
holy  Church."  Even  the  well-known  Mr.  Melville,  while 
pleading  for  a  further  "  daily  renewal,"  yet  says,  "  we  be- 
lieve it  to  be  specially  and  throiigh  the  sacrament  of  bap- 
tism that  the  Holy  Ghost  acts  in  renovating  the  nature 
which  became  corrupt  through  the  apostasy."  "We 
really  think  that  no  fair,  no  straightforward  dealing  can  get 
rid  of  the  conclusion  that  the  Church  holds  what  is  called 


76  BAPTISMAL    REGEXEEATION. 

baptismal  regeneration.  Tou  may  dislike  the  doctrine,  yon 
may  wish  it  expmiged  from  the  prayer-book,  but  so  long 
as  I  subscribe  to  that  prayer-book,  and  so  long  as  I  officiate 
according  to  the  forms  of  that  prayer-book  I  do  not  see 
how  I  can  be  commonly  honest  and  yet  deny  that  erery 
baptized  person  is  on  that  accoimt  regenerate.-'' 

Such  are  the  views  of  the  evangelical  Melville,  repub- 
lished in  this  country  within  a  few  years,  and  endorsed  by 
Bishop  M'llvaine. 

In  the  Methodist  Church,  the  form  for  the  baptism  of  in- 
fants happily  omits  the  above  sentiments,  thus  showing  their 
sense  of  their  obvious  incongruity  with  evangelical  religion. 
In  the  Doctrinal  Tracts,  however,  published  a  few  years  ago 
by  the  Methodist  authorities  in  this  country,  is  a  Treatise  by 
Mr.  Wesley  fhU  of  the  baptismal  regeneration  of  infants, 
and  declaring  that  '•  in  the  ordinary  way  they  can  not  be 
saved  unless  original  sin  be  washed  away  in  baptism ;"  that 
bv  it  "  we  who  are  bv  nature  children  of  wrath  are  made 
children  of  God :"  and  that  '*  by  water  as  a  means  we  are 
regenerated  and  bom  again.'' 

Xow  this  language  of  Mr.  Wesley  was  wi-itten  rather 
less  than  a  hundred  years  ago.  TVe  are  happy  to  feel  as- 
sm'ed  that  very  few,  if  any.  of  our  Methodist  brethren  be- 
lieve it  now.  But  it  belongs  naturally  to  the  system  of  in- 
fent  baptism,  and  thus  has  been  in  a  measure  thoughtlessly 
transferred  in  a  form  used  by  them  to  this  day  in  the  bapv- 
tism  of  adults.  ''We  call  upon  Tliee  for  these  persons  that 
they,  cominff  to  Thy  holy  baptis^-m,  may  receive  remission  of 
their  sins  by  spiritual  regeneration.''  It  is  difficult  to  know 
what  a  Methodist  minister  would  do  in  case  a  pei*son  should 

I  Melville's  Sermons,  the  Spirit  on  the  "Waters,  volume  iL  page 
306. 


PKESBTTERIAX    VIEW C  OXG  REG  ATI  OX  AL  77 

say  to  him,  "  I  seek  baptism  because  I  have  been  regenerat- 
ed and  my  sins  are  forgiven." 

In  the  confession  of  the  Presb}'terian  Chm-ch,  baptism  is 
declai-ed  to  be  "  generally  necessary  to  salvation."  And  as 
this  with  them  usually  means  infant  baptism,  we  have  here 
sacraments  regarded  as  efficacious  "^-ithout  faith  in  the  recip- 
ient ;  actmg,  therefore,  necessarily  by  an  opus  operatiimj 
"  generally  necessary  to  salvation."  If  tliis  were  true,  how 
many  a  parents'  heart  might  be  lacerated  if  his  child  died 
without  bajitism.  "We  may  smile  at  all  these  as  now  obso- 
lete ideas,  which  they  unquestionably  are,  among  the  best 
informed  in  this  country,  but  hardly  among  the  niuiierical 
majority,  even  here,  of  those  who  practice  this  rite,  and 
certainly  not  m  Europe.  But  a  hundred  years  ago  these 
confessions  of  faith  represented  fairly  the  state  of  the  cur- 
rent belief  Xor  are  there  lacking  many  attempts  to  revive 
such  opinions  m  the  most  influential  quarters  now.  What 
can  we  think  of  Dr.  Xevin,  for  instance,  declaring  that  the 
Church  "  makes  us  Christians  by  the  sacrament  of  holy  bap- 
tism, which  she  always  held  to  be  of  suiDcrnatural  force  for 
this  very  purpose."  ^ 

The  opinions  of  our  Congregational  brethren  are  exceed- 
ingly various  and  doubtful.  Some  of  them  seem,  in  former 
tim.es,  to  have  followed  Calvin  in  the  idea  that  it  accrued 
only  to  the  benefit  of  the  elect  mlants  wJio  received  it.  Dr. 
Stoddard,  of  Northampton,  held  that  the  sacraments  are  to 
be  regarded  as  means  of  grace  oflfered  to  all  who  hold  the 
Christian  faith  and  maintain  a  correct  life  without  any  refer- 
ence to  a  change  of  heart.  Dr.  BushneU"  speaks  clearly  in 
regard  to  the  contradictory  opinions  that  have  been  held  on 

*  "  Christian  Niirhire,"  p.  97. 

'  Arguments  for  Christian  Nurture,  p.  60. 


78     CONGREGATION^AL  VIEW   OP   INFANT  BAPTISM. 

this  subject  by  the  New  England  di\'ines.  As  a  Congrega- 
tionahst,  writmg  at  the  iwesent  day,  he  shows  the  progress 
of  what  he  would  cheerfully  admit  to  be  Baj^tist  views,  as 
■v^dll  be  evident  on  examination/  Probably  Avhen  Edwards 
wi'ote,  the  Congregationahsts  of  New  England  would  all 
have  agreed  to  this,  a  ground  not  unconamonly  held  now, 
that  infant  baptism  in  some  way  renders  the  condition  of 
the  child  who  dies  in  infailcy  "  more  safe."  It  must  mean 
all  this  if  it  mean  any  thing.  And  this  Coleridge  once  de- 
clared seemed  to  him  "  the  strongest  argument  of  all  against 
it,  namely,  that  it  supposes,  and  most  certainly  encourages, 
a  belief  concerning  a  God  the  most  blasphemous  and  in- 
tolerable," ^.  e.,  that  the  want  of  it  may  occasion  their  "  eter- 
nal loss." '  In  order  to  avoid  this  difficulty  our  Congrega- 
tional brethren  have  been  wont  to  affirm  that  baptism  does 
not  place  the  children  of  behevers  in  the  covenant  which 
belongs  to  them  by  bi7'th,  it  is  only  the  public  recognition 
and  seed  of  this  covenant.  This,  however,  does  not  evade 
the  difficulty,  if  their  condition,  they  dying  in  infancy,  is  sup- 
posed to  be  made  a  whit  more  safe  in  consequence  of  this 
seal. 

In  the  present  day  it  is  difficult  for  most  persons  to  em- 
brace such  a  view  of  the  character  of  God  as  that  expressed 
by  Coleridge.  lufmt  baptism  is  most  dangerous  to  the 
present  age,  therefore,  on  accoimt  of  the  support  it  gives 
to  the  Poijish  doctrme  of  an  efficacy  residmg  in  sacraments 
and  the  works  of  others,  mthout  any  faith  of  our  own. 
Thus  it  opposes  the,  whole  gospel  system  of  regeneration 
by  the  Spirit,  and  justification  by  faith.  Nobly  was  this  last 
preached  by  Luther  and  his  associates  at  the  Reformation ; 
clearly  and  thoroughly  is  it  preached  by  our  evangelical 

'  Christian  Nurture,  pp.  60,  90.     ^  Coleridges'  Works,  vol.  v.  p.  192. 


BAPTISMAL    EEGENERATIOK.  79 

brethren,  of  many  different  commnnions,  at  the  present 
day.  So  far  as  the  Lord's  Supper  is  concerned,  Zuingle 
and  his  followers,  at  least,  held  it  to  be  in  itself  a  symbol 
of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  and  as  such  useful  only 
where  it  is  the  expression  of  faith  m  Him.  This  is  the  view 
that  Baptists  have  ever  taken  of  both  the  ordinances  of  the 
Christian  religion.  They  never  baptize  or  admit  to  the 
Lord's  table  any  who  have  not  previously  made  a  credible 
profession  of  personal  faith.  It  has  thus  never  been  possi- 
ble for  them  to  magnify  either  of  those  sacraments  into 
saving  ordinances. 

But  in  this  they  have  had  to  stand  alone  as  a  denomina- 
tion. It  is  true,  mdeed,  that  when  Luther  was  pressed  by 
the  contradiction  between  justification  by  faith  alone,  and 
infant  baptism,  he,  by  a  stretch  of  fancy  in  which  few  have 
been  able  to  follow  him,  declared  that  inflmts  had  faith  m 
the  germ,  and  therefore  were  entitled  to  baptism  on  that 
accoimt.  It  has  smce  been  administered  on  the  ground  of 
the  promise  of  sponsors  that  they  should  believe,  or  on  the 
faith  of  the  parents.  The  custom,  however,  has  always 
proved  a  part  and  pillar  of  Popery,  and  afforded  the  most 
effectual  of  all  arguments  in  favor  of  the  Romish  view,  and 
against  justification  by  faith  alone.  The  testimony  of  Bap- 
tists that  the  faith  of  the  recipient  is  necessary  to  render 
sacraments  acceptable,  is,  on  tliis  account,  important  to  the 
Church,  and  aU  that  they  demand  is  readily  conceded  by 
evangelical  Christians  when  argiiing  in  favor  of  justification 
by  faith.  Yet  it  is  lost  sight  of  by  them  when  defending 
infant  baptism,  while  the  upholders  of  sacramental  efri^-acy 
then  stand  ^vdth  consistency  upon  the  natural  import  of  that 
ceremony.  Here,  indeed,  is  the  point  of  extreme  diverg- 
ence between  evangelical  rehgion  and  the  most  fatal  super- 


80  NORTH    BEITISHEEVIEW. 

stition  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  The  Papists  contend  for 
an  efficacy  residhig  in  the  sacraments  themselves,  an  ojms 
operation^  and  they  appeal  to  infant  baptism  in  proof.  And 
it  must  at  last  be  conceded  that  it  does  the  cliild  good  in 
that  manner  or  not  at  all. 

It  is  thus  the  great  j^rop  and  pillar  of  sacramental  efficacy 
and  all  sacerdotalism,  wherever  it  exists,  from  Cardmal 
Wiseman  to  the  Bishop  of  Exeter,  and  from  him  to  Dr.  Ne- 
vins.  "  The  dogmatic  theory  of  baptism"  says  the  Bishop 
of  Exeter,  "  becomes  of  necessity  the  basis  of  the  entire 
scheme  of  Anglican  theology."  And  the  Xorth  British 
Re^dew,  the  organ  of  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Scotland,  avows  that  all  this  can  only  be  answered  by  con- 
ceding the  entire  imscripturalness  of  inlant  baptism : 

"The  capital,  the  fatal  objection  to  the  present  baptis- 
mal service  of  the  Church  of  England,  is  that  in  no  case  of 
unconscious  infants  can  we  reasonably  suppose  that  the 
spiritual  grace  therein  imphed  has  been  obtauied  through 
the  sj^iritual  qiialification  of  the  recipient.  If  a  spiritual 
effect  has  been  produced  on  the  soul  of  the  infant,  it  must 
have  been  produced  wholly  on  man's  side  by  the  agency  of 
the  priest,  his  outward  act  has  altered  the  mind  of  the  bap- 
tized person  Avithout  any  consciousness  of  liis  own.  This  is 
a  superstition  which  contradicts  directly  the  very  idea  of 
Christianity,  but  it  is  also  the  essence  of  sacerdotalism.  It 
is  indisputable  that  if  the  term  regeneration  exj^resses  any 
spiritual  effect  on  the  soul,  the  baptismal  service  counte- 
nances the  sacramental  system  and  the  priestly  theory. 
And  precisely  the  same  result  follows  also  if  (as  some  High 
Churchman  who  hesitated  to  ascribe  to  the  sprinkling  of  the 
baptismal  water  a  transforming  power  on  the  soul  have 
imagined)  the  effect  of  baptism  is  limited  to  the  washing 


NORTH     BRITISH     REVIEW.  81 

away  of  original  sin.  This  supposition  implies  that  an  ui- 
fant  who  had  the  misfortune  of  dying  before  baptism, 
necessarily  retains  the  burden  of  original  guUt,  and  as  Au- 
gustine and  many  others  have  beUeved,  falls  imder  eternal 
condemnation.  How  any  person,  who  had  obtained  the 
fauitest  insight  uato  the  meaning  of  the  Christian  religion 
could  have  brought  himself  to  believe  that  God  consigns  an 
unconscious  and  helpless  being  to  eternal  happiness  or  eter- 
nal misery  according  as  an  extei*nal  and  purely  mechanical 
operation  has  been  performed  upon  him  by  the  iustrument- 
aUty  of  others  is  what  we  have  never  been  able  to  conceive. 
But  certainly  if  life  or  death,  and  that  forever,  depends  on 
an  outward  rite  without  the  shghtest  mental  concurrence 
on  the  part  of  the  recipient,  the  fundamental  idea  of  a 
priesthood,  the  intervention  of  a  human  mediator  between 
God  and  man,  is  established,  sacerdotahsm  has  gained  its 
principle,  it  wiU  have  an  easy  victory  over  every  other  im- 
pediment. 

"  But,  thank  God,  there  is  not  one  word  in  the  New 
Testament  which  in  the  shghtest  degree  sanctions  so  terrible 
a  doctrine :  we  are  spared  the  pain,  to  say  the  least,  of  see- 
ing the  Christian  Scriptures  contradicting  their  own  ideal 
of  Chi-istianity.  The  origin  of  the  mischief  is  plain.  The 
doctrine  of  the  baptismal  service  is  true  ;  the  unconscious- 
ness of  the  mfint  is  the  real /o/is  wza^^         *         *         * 

"  The  language  of  Scripture  regarding  baptism  impUes 
the  spiritual  act  of  faith  in  the  recipients.  Wlien  mfant 
baptism  is  now  spoken  of,  the  necessary  modification  must 
accordingly  be  made  in  applying  language  used  by  Scripture 
concerning  spiritual  baptism  only.  Inextricable  confusion 
has  been  the  inevitable  consequence  when  language  used  of 
adults,  of  persons  possessed  of  intelligence,  and  capable  of 

4* 


82.  NORTH    BRITISH    REVIEW. 

spiritual  acts,  was  gratuitously  applied  to  unconscious  in- 
fants." ' 

"We  feel  persuaded  that  it  Tvould  be  great  injustice  to 
other  evangelical  denominations  to  suppose  that  now  the 
relation  of  faith  to  ordinances  is  not  generally  preached  by 
them.  But  it  is  a  change  which  has  been  produced  by  the 
vital  and  irrepressible  elements  of  evangelical  pi-inciples 
within  them,  counteracting  the  effects  of  the  Pedobaptist 
principle,  and,  as  we  shaU  show,  destroying,  in  a  great 
measure,  Pedobaptism  itself  The  spirit  of  the  age — the 
spirit  of  a  purely  voluntary  religion,  or  rather  the  progress 
of  Baptist  sentiments  keeps  the  tendencies  of  this  error  in 
check,  and  reduces  it  to  the  insignificant  position  it  just  now 
occupies  in  this  country  compared  with  other  countries,  and 
in  this  age  compared  with  other  ages.  But  in  aU  discussions 
between  High  Churchmen  and  Low,  those  who  hold  to  bap- 
tismal regeneration  and  those  who  do  not,  it  is  only  by  dis- 
carding infant  baptism  that  evangelical  truth  can  be  for  a 
moment  maintained.  This  is  conceded  as  undeniable  in 
the  article  of  the  "  Xorth  British  Review,"  from  which  we 
have  before  quoted. 

"  The  non-recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  external  rite 
of  infant  baptism  is  not  the  baptism  spoken  of  in  Scripture, 
is  the  source  of  the  j)alpable  weakness  of  English  Low  Church- 
men in  the  discussion  of  this  question.  They  have  reason 
and  religion  on  their  side,  but  in  the  apf)eal  to  Scripture 
they  are  undeniably  worsted  by  their  opponents.  Xo  shift 
va\\  ever  help  them.  The  advantage  possessed  by  the  High 
Church  party  rests  on  the  assumption  that  what  is  said  of 
baptism  in  Scripture  may  be  equally  said  of  the  infant  baptism 
practiced  by  the  Church  of  England,  and  nothing  but  a  de- 
'  North  British  Review,  August,  1852,  pp.  209,  10. 


BAPTISMAL     REGENERATION.  83 

nial  of  theii-  complete  identity  ^dll,  or  can  strip  them  of  this 
advantage.  Evangelicals  are  afraid  of  looking  the  truth  in 
the  face.  They  are  hampered  by  a  superstitious  feeling 
about  infant  baptism,  they  are  afraid  of  discrediting  it,  m 
sjDite  of  the  many  excellent  reasons  which  justify  its  adop- 
tion ;  and  they  are  still  more  afraid  of  saying  that  the  bap- 
tism of  the  Church  of  England  is  not  identical  with  the 
spiritual  baptism  of  the  Apostles.  So  long  as  they  refuse  to 
admit  the  real  truth,  so  long  must  they  be  content  to  carry 
on  this  all-mii^ortant  controversy  at  a  fearful  disadvantage, 
and  so  long  must  they  continue  to  experience  the  bitter 
consequences  of  the  fact,  that  here  the  spirit  of  Popery^ 
Tinder  one  or  other  of  its  more  specious  forms,  has,  for  the 
last  three  centuries,  retained  a  footing  within  the  very 
stronghold  of  Protestantism,  from  which  it  has  never  yet 
been  dislodged." ' 

We  are  not,  however,  at  hberty  to  suppose,  from  the  rapid 
and  important,  but  silent  changes  of  the  last  century,  that 
baptismal  regeneration  is  finally  d}ang  out,  and  will  struggle 
no  more.  Error  embodied  in  ordinances  and  great  public 
acts  may  seem  to  die  for  awhile,  but  it  is  only  like  a  foe  that 
retires  from  the  plain  to  intrench  himself  within  a  fortress. 
A  few  years  ago  it  was  supposed  that  the  Episcopal  Church 
was  all  becoming  evangelical,  imtil  Puseyism  awoke  the 
slumbering  High  Church  feeling,  and  from  behind  breast- 
works, made  but  of  the  rags  of  gowns  and  cassocks,  recon- 
structed a  system  of  spiritual  tyranny  and  ritual  religion, 
worse  by  far  than  the  better  portions  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 

But  if  priestly  garments  formed  their  temporary  sand- 
bags, infant  baptism  was  by  them  felt  to  be  the  main  forti- 
fication— the  citadel  of  their  Avhole  strength.  Thus,  for 
'  North  British  Review,  August,  1852,  p.  211. 


84  IMPORTANCE    OF    BAPTIST    VIEWS. 

instance,  in  "  Tracts  for  the  Times,"  No.  67,  the  author, 
having  to  prove  the  doctrine  of  baptismal  regeneration, 
quotes  those  strong  passages  of  Scrij^ture  in  which  all  bap- 
tized adults  are  addressed  as  regenerated.  He  then  quietly 
remarks  that  "  a  question  not  unnaturally  arises,  now  that 
the  people  undertake  to  solve  the  difficulty  for  themselves 
— Do  aU  the  promises  and  descriptions  of  baptism  apply  to 
infant  baptism  ?"  To  this  he  replies,  "  Certainly,  unless 
they  did,  in  effect,  infant  baptism  were  WTong,  for  so  we 
should  be  deprivmg  oiir  children  of  whatever  benefits  it 
were  supposed  that  adult  baptism  conferred,  and  infant  bap- 
tism was  incapable  of.  But  since  infant  bajjtism  is  rights 
then  must  it  confer  in  effect,  and  in  the  rudiments,  all  the 
benefits  of  adult  baptism  to  be  developed  hereafter." 

If  the  still  further  progress,  not  alone  of  Baptist  senti- 
ments, but  of  their  practices,  is  desu'able,  it  is  mainly  as 
affording  the  best,  the  only  real  security  to  the  Church  and 
the  Avorld,  for  the  perpetuity  of  these  great  pi'inciples,  of 
which  the  Baptists  have  alone  been  the  consistent  and  un- 
flinching advocates.  Of  these,  this  is  not  to  be  esteemed 
the  least  important,  that  the  sacraments  have  in  themselves 
no  saving  power  whatever,  but  depend  for  aU  their  value 
and  acceptability  on  the  faith  of  the  recipient.  These  prin- 
ciples evangelical  Christians  are  now  generally  willing  to 
concede ;  but  untU  infant  baptism  be  openly  abandoned, 
there  is  a  constant  tendency  to  reaction,  a  danger  of  re- 
lapse. The  entering  wedge  for  the  recurrence  of  aU  that  is 
most  fatal  in  the  delusions  of  Popery  is  in  the  crcAnce,  and  a 
few  hard  blows  may  at  any  moment  split  aU  other  Protest- 
antism to  pieces. 

It  is  not,  therefore,  merely  in  regard  to  the  time  and  cir- 
cumstances of  a  ceremony  that  Baptists  are  contending,  but 


BAPTIST     VIEW.  85 

it  is  for  '[yrindples  the  most  yalnable  of  any  embodied  in  the 
Reformation  from  Popery,  or  in  the  whole  range  of  evan- 
gehcal  piety — principles  for  which  the  Baptist  denomination 
alone  have  consistently  and  unwaveringly  contended  durmg 
the  last  hundred  years — principles  at  this  moment  popular 
"u-ith  the  body  of  evangelical  Christians,  but  for  the  per- 
manence of  M'hich  popularity  they  desire  more  full  security. 
So  long  as  infant  baptism  is  preached,  a  Newman,  or  a 
Pusey,  or  a  Nevin,  or  a  Schaff,  can,  without  much  tortur- 
ing, convert  it  into  an  acknowledgment  of  baptismal  re- 
generation on  the  one  side,  and  a  Stoddard  or  a  Bushnell 
make  it  the  entering  wedge  of  a  lax  chm'ch-membership  on 
the  other. 


CHAPTER   Y. 

BELIEVERS   THE    ONLY   SCEIPTUKAL   SUBJECTS   OF   BAPTISM. 
SECTION   1.      THE   BAPTIST   VrEW   STATED. 

N'oT  quite  a  hundred  years  ago  w^as  born  one  who  for 
many  years  was  a  Baptist  minister  of  great  usefulness.  It 
has  been  the  lot  of  the  writer  of  these  pages  to  preach  oc- 
casionally in  the  pulpit  that  was  once  his,  and  to  administer 
the  rites  of  religion  to  several  of  his  descendants  of  three  suc- 
cessive generations.  Three  of  his  children,  eleven  of  his 
grandchildren,  and  either  five  or  six  of  his  great-grandchildren, 
have,  to  the  knowledge  of  the  author,  joined  the  same  de- 
nomination, by  a  profession  of  their  personal  faith,  in  Chiis- 
tian  baptism.  Nor  is  he  aware  of  more  than  one  of  all  his 
descendants  having  reached  the  age  of  twenty  who  has 


80^  BAPTIST    VIEW. 

died  without  being  baptized,  or  who  is  noAV  living  without 
having  submitted  to  that  ordinance.  Most  of  them  have 
made  a  profession  of  reUgion  early  in  life,  and  one  most 
satisfactory  case,  some  years  ago,  at  the  early  age  of  ten 
years.  It  was  when  some  of  these  young  persons  were 
about  to  be  baptized  that  the  writer  was  naturally  led  to 
consider  the  pi'Ogress  in  tliis  country  of  those  principles  of 
which  their  great-grandfather  had  been  so  powerflil  an  ad- 
vocate. Then  it  was  that  the  ideas  of  this  work  first  pre- 
sented themselves  to  the  author. 

And  these  cu-cumstances  are  now  mentioned  both  for  the 
encouragement  of  jjious  parents  who  dedicate  their  chil- 
dren to  God  by  prayer,  as  showing  His  love  and  faithfulness 
to  children's  children,  and  also  to  reUeve  the  scruples  and 
fears  of  such  Christians  as  suppose  that  infant  baptism  is 
required  in  order  to  render  his  gracious  promises  to  Chris- 
tian parents  more  firmly  sealed  and  sure.  Baptists  maintain 
as  strongly  as  others  the  duty  of  all  parents  to  brmg  up  their 
children  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord.  They 
acknowledge  the  propriety  of  Christians  consecrating  them- 
selves and  every  relation  they  sustam,  to  God,  whether  as 
husbands,  or  as  wives,  or  as  parents,  and  humbly  dedicating 
all  connected  ^ith  them.  Thus  are  their  children  holy,  and 
thus  then*  waves  or  husbands.*  If  any  special  ser\'ices  seem 
wise  and  fit  to  impress  or  recognize  aU  this  in  regard  to  any 
relation,  the  Baptists  are  ever  glad  to  avail  themselves  of 
it.  They  have  quite  as  usually  as  other  Christians  sought 
of  God's  ministers  a  nuptial  blessing,  where  a  merely  civU 
ceremony  would  have  answered  all  legal  purposes.  They 
are  accustomed  daily  to  unplore  God's  blessing  on  then* 
families,  and  over  each  meal.  Sometimes  Christian  parents 
I  1  Cor.  viL  14. 


BAPTIST     VIEW.  87 

have  solemnly  presented  their  children  by  public  prayer  of- 
fered in  the  house  of  God,  that  he  would  bestow  upon  them, 
his  heavenly  grace,  and  pour  his  blessings  on  their  seed. 
But  Baptists  have  ever  opposed  transferring  baptism,  a  di- 
vuie  ordinance  instituted  for  the  believer,  to  the  person  of 
an  unconscious  babe.  This  perverts  a  Divine  institution, 
and  can  do  them  no  good.  All  that  is  2:)roposed  can  be  bet- 
ter accomplished  by  prayer  alone,  while  it  robs  them  m  after 
years  of  this  commanded  confession  of  Christ,  when  per- 
sonal fliith  would  give  it  vitality  and  usefolness.  With  as 
much  propriety  might  Christians  baptize  the  unbeUeving 
wife  on  account  of  the  faith  of  the  believing  husband,  as 
the  unthinking  mfant  because  the  child  of  a  Christian. 

Not  long  since,  a  converted  Roman  Catholic  professor  of 
theology  from  Italy,  when  at  his  request  the  subject  of  be- 
lievers' baptism  had  been  explained  to  him,  quickly  asked, 
"  But  what  then  of  those  who  die  in  infancy — are  they  all 
lost  ?"  It  was  instantly  replied  that  his  remark  suggested 
the  most  fatal  objection  possible  to  infont  baptism,  namely, 
that  it  takes  for  granted,  or  at  least  strongly  implies,  danger 
that  without  it  mfants  are  not  safe. 


SECTION   2.      INFANT  BAPTISM   CONCEDED   TO  BE   UNSCRIPTURAL. 

Many  intelligent  Christians,  many  ministers  of  the  Gos- 
pel, who  have  not  looked  closely  at  the  history  of  this  con- 
troversy, are  Uttle  aware  how  completely  the  researches  of 
the  last  hundred  years  have  proved  the  truth  and  import- 
ance of  such  views  of  believers'  baptism.  One  after  another 
we  shall  show  how  the  different  arguments,  both  from  the 
Bible  and  from  history,  in  favor  of  mfant  baptism,  have  been 
given  up,  and  ai'gued  against  by  the  most  enlightened  Pedo- 


88  SPONSORS     NO     AUTHORITY. 

baptists  themselves,  in  fact  that  the  whole  system  is  crumb- 
ling to  pieces,  and  is  admitted  to  have  no  fomidation  in 
Sci'ipture. 

A  hundred  years  ago,  the  substitution  of  sponsors  was 
probably  esteemed  as  a  sufficient  apology  for  the  want  of 
personal  faith,  with  a  large  portion  of  those  who  preached 
infant  baptism.  In  the  Episcopal  Church  it  is  to  this  day 
formally  stated  in  their  catechism,  as  if  it  were  considered 
the  stronsrest  argnment  in  its  favor  ; 

Ques. — "What  is  reqiured  of  persons  to  be  baptized?" 

Ans. — "  Repentance,  whereby  they  forsake  sin ;  and  faith, 
whereby  they  steadfastly  beheve  the  promises  of  God  made 
to  them  m  that  sacrament." 

Ques. — Why,  then,  are  infants  baptized,  when  by  reason 
of  their  tender  age  they  can  not  perform  them  ?" 

A71S. — "  Because  they  promise  them  both,  by  their  sure- 
ties ;  which  promise,  when  they  come  to  age,  themselves  are 
bound  to  perform." 

This  ground,  however,  is  now  little  thought  of  Except 
in  the  Catechism,  or  to  children,  no  one  would  think  of 
using  it.  Sponsors  would  do  all  very  well  as  an  authority 
for  infant  baptism,  provided  we  could  only  get  sufficient  au- 
thority for  the  sponsors.  The  use  of  them  has  been  given 
up  by  the  Presbyterians,  and  most  of  the  reformed  churches, 
since  the  Reformation,  as  a  corruption.  No  authority  for 
them  is  to  be  found  before  the  tinie  of  TertuUian,  a.d.  200. 
Indeed  aU  uses  for  which  such  an  argument  could  be  seri- 
ously brought  forward  m  the  jiresent  day,  must  be  based 
upon  the  authority  of  the  Church  to  alter  the  institutions 
of  primitive  Christianity.  Dr.  Bunsen  justly  says :  "  The 
theories  respecting  Pedobaptism,  accordmg  to  any  of  the  sys- 
tems of  the  Reformation,  would  be  perfectly  iminteUigible 


NO    PRECEPT    OR    EXAMPLE    IN    SCRIPTURE.        89 

to  the  ancient  Churches,  and  can  not  be  brought  into  har- 
mony with  their  consciousness  and  monuments,  except  by 
fictions  and  conventionaUties.  But  these  fictions  and  con- 
ventionahties  are  also  required  for  our  own  age,  and  it  can 
not  he  denied  that  on  the  ichole  they  prove  inefficacious  a7id 
insufficient,  and  do  ?iot  satisfij  the  puhlic  conscience.  Those 
who  deny  this  fact  show  as  much  an  ignorance  of  the  real 
state  of  the  world,  as  of  the  nature  of  Christianity." ' 

It  used  to  be  supposed  that  there  were  many  clear  and 
dii'ect  proofs  of  infant  baptism,  both  by  command  and  ex- 
ample, to  be  found  in  the  New  Testament.  But  Dr.  Woods, 
of  Andover,  admits  candidly  that  "  it  is  plam  that  there  is 
no  express  precept  respectmg  infant  baptism  in  our  sacred 
writmgs,"  and  that  consequently  "  the  proof  that  it  is  a  di- 
vine institution  must  be  made  in  another  way."  Knapp, 
also,  in  his  "  Theological  Lectures,"  says  that  "  there  is  no 
decisive  example  of  this  practice  in  the  New  Testament ;" 
and  again,  that  "  there  is  no  express  command  for  infant 
baptism,  as  Morus  justly  concedes,"  and  thinks  it  "  suflicient 
to  show  that  it  was  7iot  forbidden  by  Christ."^ 

But  all  this  only  represents  the  state  of  theological  opin- 
ion in  a  past  generation.  Now  it  is  very  difterent.  When, 
for  instance,  the  "North  British  Review"  is  arguing  against 
the  Puseyite  writers  m  the  Church  of  England,  it  does  not 
hesitate  to  urge  such  assertions  as  these :  "  Scripture  knows 
nothing  of  the  baptism  of  mfants."  "  There  is  absolutely 
not  a  single  trace  of  it  to  be  found  in  the  New  Testament. 
There  are  passages  which  may  be  reconciled  with  it,  if  the 
practice  can  only  be  proved  to  have  existed,  but  there  is 
not  one  word  which  asserts  its  existence.     Nay,  more ;  it 

1  Hippolytus  and  his  Age,  vol.  ii.  pp.  108,  9. 

2  Christian  Theology,  p.  494. 


90  ABRAHAMIC    COVENANT — BAPTIST    VIEW. 

may  be  urged  that  1  Corintliians,  vii.  14  is  incompatible 
with  the  supposition  that  infant  baptism  was  then  2)racticed 
at  Corinth.'" 

The  Abrahamic  Covenant,  making  baptism  come  in  the 
room  of  circumcision,  used  to  be  greatly  relied  upon.  The 
two  covenants,  it  was  said,  were  substantially  the  same,  and 
Romans  iv.  1 1  Avas  always  adduced  to  prove  that  circumcis' 
ion  was,  as  baptism  now  is,  "a  seal  of  the  righteousness  of 
faith."  In  rejjly.  Baptists  were  accustomed  to  point  out 
that,  1.  Circumcision  was  a  seal  or  pledge  of  certain  tem- 
poral blessings  to  all  who  rightly  received  it ;  but  baptism 
is  no  seal  or  pledge  of  any  thing  of  the  kind.  2.  Circum- 
cision was  not  a  sign  or  seal  of  eternal  life  to  all  who  truly 
and  properly  received  it ;  but  baptism  is.  3.  Circumcis- 
ion was  to  all  the  descendants  of  Abraham  the  sign,  not  of 
their  own  faith,  but  of  the  faith  "  which  he  had,"  and  all 
the  blessings  of  which  it  was  the  seal  flowed  through  the 
faith  of  another,  i.  e.,  Abraham ;  while  baptism  is  the  sym- 
bol of  our  own  faith,  and  none  of  the  blessings  of  which  it 
is  the  seal  can  floAv  to  us  otherwise  than  through  this  medi- 
imi.  It  was  because  the  fii'st  covenant  was  found  faulty  in 
these  respects  that  a  better  covenant  was  established  upon 
better  jDromises.'' 

By  degrees  the  whole  doctrine  of  the  Abrahamic  Cove- 
nant has  been  given  up  by  the  ablest  defenders  of  infant 
baptism.  The  contradictory  views  maintained  in  regard  to 
it,  even  by  the  same  writers,  had  long  been  pointed  out  be- 
fore this  took  place.  Thus,  Matthew  Henry,  for  example, 
in  one  place  says  that  "  by  haptisra  we  are  brought  into  the 
covenant."  In  another  place  he  msists  that  "  baptism  be 
longs  to  those  who  are  in  that  covenant  (at  least  by  profes 
I  Aug.  1852,  pp.  209,  10.  2  Heb.  viiL  6-10. 


CIRCUMCISIOX COLERIDGE'S    VIEW.  91 

sion)  and  to  none  othex*.  The  infants  of  believing  parents 
are  in  covenant  with  God,  and  therefore  have  a  right  to  the 
biitiating  seal."  So  as  to  church-membership  ;  in  one  place 
he  tells  us  that  "  baptism  is  an  ordinance  of  Christ,  whereby 
the  person  baptized  is  solemnly  admitted  a  member  of  the 
visible  church ;"  yet,  in  the  same  Treatise,  he  assures  us 
that  baptism  "  is  an  ordinance  of  the  visible  Church,  and 
pertains  therefore  to  those  that  are  visible  members ;  their 
covenant  right  and  their  church-membership  entitleth  them 
to  baptism.  Baptism  doth  not  give  the  title,  but  recognizes 
it,  and  comj^letes  that  church-membership  which  before  was 
imperfect." '  It  is  this  obvious  contradiction  which,  running 
through  all  the  writings  of  the  Congregationahst  and  Pres- 
byterian defenders  of  this  system,  has  silently  caused  it  to 
lose  its  power  on  the  more  thoughtful  advocates  of  this 
rite,  from  Coleridge  to  Dr.  Hodge.  Certain  it  is  that  the 
whole  of  the  groimd  is  given  up,  and  admitted  to  be  of  no 
divine  authority  in  favor  of  the  system. 

Perhaps  no  man's  thoughts  have  more  weight  at  this 
time  than  those  of  Coleridge."  After  showmg  the  error  of 
inferring  the  title  of  infants  to  this  rite  from  the  cases  of 
household  baptism,  he  adds  : 

"  Equally  vain  is  the  pretended  analogy  from  circmncis- 
ion,  which  was  no  sacrament  at  all,  but  the  means  and  mark 
of  national  distinction.  Circumcision  was  intended  to  dis- 
tinguish the  Jews  by  some  indehble  sign,  and  it  was  no  less 
necessary  that  Jewish  children  should  be  recognizable  as 
Jews  than  Jewish  adults,  not  to  mention  the  greater  safety 
of  the  rite  in  infancy.     Nor  was  it  ever  pretended  that  any 

*  Booth,  Pedo.  Examined,  p.  1Y3. 

2  Aida  to  Reflection :  Article  on  Baptism. 


92  CIRCUMCISIOX  —  HODGE'S    VIEW. 

grace  ^vas  conferred  with  it,  or  that  the  rite  loas  significant 
of  any  inward  or  spiritual  operation?'' 

In  his  Notes  on  Jeremy  Taylor,^  he  repeats  these  re- 
marks in  substance,  adding  :  "  Tliis  is  clear,  for  the  woman 
had  no  corresponding  rite,  but  the  same  result  was  obtained 
by  the  various  severe  laws  concerning  their  marriage  with 
aUens,  and  other  actions."  This,  it  might,  however,  be  said, 
was  the  language  of  a  mere  philosopher,  not  a  fair  repre- 
sentation of  any  ecclesiastical  body  of  Christians.  But 
when  the  Old  School  Presbyterians  began  to  be  attacked  by 
the  Episcopahans,  who  plead  the  analogy  of  cu-cmncision 
and  of  the  ancient  Jewish  church  in  favor  of  admitting 
good  and  bad  into  Christian  churches,  the  "  Princeton  Re- 
view"'^ abandons  the  covenant  of  circumcision,  and  assmnes 
so  for  Baptist  ground.  Dr.  Hodge  says :  "  It  is  to  be  remem- 
bered that  there  were  two  covenants  made  with  Abraham. 
By  the  one,  his  natural  descendants  through  Isaac  were  con- 
stituted a  commonwealth,  an  external,  visible  community. 
By  the  other,  his  spiritual  descendants  were  constituted  a 
church.  *  *  *  There  can  not  be  a  greater  mistake  than  to 
confound  the  national  covenant  with  the  covenant  of  grace, 
and  the  commonwealth  founded  on  the  one  with  the  Church 
founded  on  the  other. 

"  "When  Christ  came,  the  commonwealth  was  abohshed, 
and  there  was  nothing  put  m  its  place.  The  Church  re- 
mained, *  *  *  a  spiritual  society  with  spiritual  promises, 
on  the  condition  of  faith  in  Christ.  In  no  part  of  the  New 
Testament  is  any  other  condition  of  membership  in  the 
Church  presented  than  that  contained  in  the  answer  of 
Philip  to  the  eunuch,  who  desired  baptism :  '  If  thou  be- 
hevest  with  all  thy  heart,  thou  mayest.     And  he  answered 

'  Works,  vol.  V.  p.  186.     Harper.  2  Oct.  1853,  pp.  684,  685. 


HOUSEHOLD    BAPTISMS.  93 

and  said,  I  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God.'  The 
Church,  therefore,  is  in  its  essential  nature  a  company  of 
believers,  and  not  an  external  society  requiring  merely  ex- 
ternal profession  as  condition  of  membership."  This  lan- 
guage may  fail  to  draw  any  distinction  between  the  visible 
Churches  and  the  invisible  Church,  yet  the  very  confusion 
makes  the  completeness  of  his  abandonment  of  circumcision 
as  any  authority  for  infant  baptism,  the  more  obvious. 

Great  stress  used  to  be  laid  upon  the  cases  of  household 
bajDtism  mentioned  in  Scripture,  ^.  e.  those  of  Stephanas,' 
the  jailor,'^  and  that  of  Lydia.'  From  these  our  Pedobap- 
tist  brethren  have  been  in  the  habit  of  inferring  the  baptism 
of  children  as  a  part  of  some  of  these  households.  On  the 
contrary,  Baptists  have  contended  that  in  the  former  two 
of  these  cases,  we  have  proof  that  infants  were  not  included 
in  that  term,*  and  that  as  to  the  case  of  Lydia,  there  is 
every  probability  there  were  none,  from  the  circumstance 
of  her  being  apparently  a  single  woman  in  a  strange  city ; 
while  numerous  other  cases  of  devout  or  belie\ing  house- 
holds* clearly  show  that  infants  were  not  embraced  by  such 
a  term  in  instances  like  these. 

In  Kitto's  Biblical  Cyclopaedia  is  an  article  on  Baptism, 
prepared  by  Professor  J.  Jacobi,  at  the  request  of  Neander, 
and  endorsed  by  him  as  "  in  unison  with  his  owti  princi- 
ples." Alluding  to  household  baptism,  as  the  "  strongest  ar- 
gument" from  Scripture  for  infant  baptism,  the  writer  says, 
however,  that   "  in  none  of  these   instances  has  it  been 

'  1  Cor.  i.  16.  "  Acts,  xvi.  33.  3  Acts,  xvi.  15. 

*  See  1  Cor.  xvi.  15 ;  Acts,  xvi.  32  and  34. 

5  Such  as  those  of  Crispus,  Acts,  xviii.  8  ;  the  nobleman  of  Capernaum, 
John,  iv.  53 ;  Onesiphorus,  2  Tim.  iv.  19 ;  and  that  of  Cornelius,  Acts, 
X.2. 


94  HOUSEHOLD     BAPTISMS COLEltlDGE. 

proved  that  there  were  httle  children  among  them;  but 
even  supposing  that  there  were,  there  was  no  necessity  for 
exchiding  them  from  baptism  in  plain  words,  smce  such  an 
exclusion  loas  understood  as  aniatter  of  course.'''' 

Neander  hunself  thus  states  his  con\'ictions  on  this  point : ' 
"  We  can  not  infer  the  existence  of  infant  baptism  from  the 
instances  of  the  baptism  of  whole  families  ;  for  the  passage, 
1  Corinthians,  xvi.  15,  shows  the  fallacy  of  such  a  conclu- 
sion, as  from  that  it  appears  that  the  whole  family  of  Ste- 
phanus,  who  were  baptized  by  Paul,  consisted  of  adults," 

Coleridge,  however,  m  his  comment  on  baptism,*  has 
placed  this  matter  in  the  strongest  light : 

"  I  must  concede  to  you  that  too  many  of  the  Pedobap- 
tists  have  erred.  I  have,  I  confess,  no  eye  for  these  smoke- 
like wreaths  of  inference,  this  ever-widening  spiral  ergo 
fi'om  the  narrow  aperture  of  a  smgle  text,  or  rather  an  in- 
terpretation forced  into  it  by  construing  an  idiomatic  phrase, 
in  an  artless  narrative,  with  the  same  absoluteness  as  if  it 
had  formed  part  of  a  mathematical  problem.  I  start  back 
from  these  inverted  pyramids,  where  the  apex  is  the  base. 
K  I  should  inform  any  one  that  I  had  called  at  a  friend's 
house,  but  had  found  nobody  at  home,  the  family  having 
all  gone  to  the  play  ;  and  if  he,  on  the  strength  of  this  in- 
formation, should  take  occasion  to  asperse  my  friend's  wife 
for  immotherly  conduct  in  taking  an  infant  six  months'  old  - 
to  a  crowded  theatre,  would  you  allow  hun  to  pressv;*i^- 
words  '  nobody'  and  '  all  the  family'  in  justification  of  the 
slander?  Would  you  not  tell  him  that  the  words  were  to  be 
interpreted  by  the  nature  of  the  subject,  the  purpose  of  the 
speaker,  and  theu*  ordinary  acceptation ;  and  that  he  must  or 

*  "  Planting  and  Training  of  the  Christian  Church,"  book  iiL  chap.  t. 
p.  101.  8  Aids  to  Keflection,  p.  819. 


CHKIST    BLESSING    CHILDREN.  95 

miglit  have  knoT\Ti  that  infants  of  that  age  would  not  be 
admitted  into  the  theatre  ?  Exactly  so  with  regard  to  the 
words,  '  he  and  all  his  household.''  Had  baptism  of  infants 
at  that  early  period  of  the  Gospel  been  a  known  practice, 
or  had  this  been  previously  demonstrated,  then  indeed  the 
argument  that  in  all  probability  there  were  infants  or 
young  children  m  so  large  a  family,  would  be  no  otherAvise 
objectionable  than  as  bemg  superfluous,  and  a  sort  of  anti- 
cUmax  in  logic.  But  if  the  words  are  cited  as  the  proof, 
it  would  be  a  clear  petitio  princlpi^  though  there  had  been 
nothing  else  against  it.  But  when  we  turn  back  to  the 
Scriptures  preceding  the  narrative,  and  find  repentance  and 
belief  demanded  as  the  terms  and  indispensable  conditions 
of  baptism,  then  the  case  above  imagmed  appUes  in  its  full 
force." 

The  cu'cumstances  of  Christ  blessing  the  little  children^ 
used  to  be  brought  forward  as  strongly  favoring  infant 
baptism.  On  the  other  hand.  Baptists  always  contended  that 
as  we  have  three  accounts  of  this  transaction,^  detailing  all 
that  did  transpire,  this  occurrence  leaves  no  room  for  the 
supposition  that  Jesus  considered  infants  fit  subjects  for 
baptism.  It  was  justly  remarked  by  Jeremy  Taylor,  on 
this  side  two  hundred  years  ago,  that  "  From  the  action  of 
Christ's  blessing  infants,  to  infer  that  they  were  baptized, 
proves  nothing  so  much  as  that  there  is  a  want  of  better 
nr  aent ;  for  the  conclusion  would  with  more  probability 
ub  derived  thus :  Christ  blessed  children  and  so  dismissed 
them,  but  baptized  them  not,  therefore  infants  are  not  to 
be  baptized." 

Olshausen,  commenting  on  tliis  passage,  says :  "  Of  that 
reference  to  uifant  baptism,  which  it  is  so  coimnon  to  seek 

'  Matt.  xix.  13-15.        «  See  Mark,  x.  13-16,  and  Luke,  xviii.  15-17, 


96  1     CORINTHIAlSrS,     Til.     14. 

in  this  narrative,  there  is  clearly  not  the  slightest  trace  to 
be  found." 

Even  Doddridge,  though  advocating  it  in  his  remarks  on 
this  very  passage,  says  :  "  I  acknowledge  these  words  wiU 
not  of  themselves  prove  infant  baptism  to  be  an  institution 
of  Chi-ist." 

Professor  Jacobi  speaks  of  the  argument  from  this  text 
as  obsolete,  and  generally  given  up.  "  In  support  of  it  [in- 
fant baptism]  the  advocates  in  former  ages  noio  hardly  any 
used  to  appeal  to  Matthew  xix.  14."  He  appears  to  think  it 
unworthy  of  further  mention.' 

1  Corinthians,  vii.  14,  was  formerly  considered  one  of  the 
strongest  proof-texts.  Pedobaptists  ai'gued  that  here  the 
children  of  believers  were  plainly  spoken  of  as  "  made  holy" 
by  their  connection  with  Christian  parents,  which,  they  in- 
ferred, could  only  be  through  baptism,  and  must  be  mtended 
as  an  allusion  to  that  ordinance.  Baptists  have  generally 
urged  that,  by  the  same  principle  carried  out,  this  passage 
would  teach  the  baptism  of  every  imconverted  husband  of 
a  believing  wife  ;  and  that,  on  the  contrary,  it  plainly  proves 
that  the  children  of  Christian  parents  were  no  more  bap- 
tized, and  had  no  closer  connection  with  the  Church  than 
the  imbelieving  jiartners  of  Christians.'^ 

In  accordance  Avith  this  latter  ^*iew,  Xeander  finds  here  a 
proof  that  at  that  time  infant  baptism  was  unknown  to  the 
Corinthian  Church.^  Or,  as  Professor  Jacobi  says  in  the 
article  on  baptism  before  quoted : 

"  A  pretty  sure  indication  of  its  non-existence  in  the 
apostolic  age  may  be  inferred  from  1    Corinthians,  xxi.  14, 

'  Kitto's  Bib.  Ency.  Art.  Baptism. 

2  See  Tracts  on  Important  Subjects,  Xo.  8,  by  Dr.  Dagg. 

3  See  Planting  and  Training,  book  iii.  chap.  5. 


CniLDKEN     HOLY.  97 

since  Paul  would  certainly  have  referred  to  the  baptism  of 
children  for  their  holiness." 

"The  Xorth  British  Review,"  '  arguing  against  the  Popish 
doctrine  of  baptismal  regeneration,  says  expressly : 

"  1  Corinthians,  vii.  14,  is  incompatible  with  the  supposi- 
tion that  infant  baptism  was  then  practiced  at  Corhith. 
The  Apostle  in  this  passage  seeks  to  remove  the  scruples  of 
those  Christian  pailners  m  mixed  marriages  who  belieA^ed 
that  a  conjugal  union  wdth  a  heathen  was  a  state  profane 
and  unholy  in  God's  sight.  He  reassures  them  by  an  argu- 
m.ent  founded  on  a  reductio  ad  ahsurduyn.  You  admit, 
says  he,  that  your  children  are  holy,  then  be  persuaded  that 
the  marriage  from  which  that  sanctity  was  derived  is  holy 
also.  For  were  it  otherwise,  if,  as  you  imagine,  the  mar- 
riage is  unholy,  then  it  would  follow  that  the  children  that 
are  the  fruits  of  it  would  be  unclean  and  unholy  also,  whereas 
you  know  and  admit  the  reverse.  You  confess  them  to  be 
holy.  It  is  absolutely  indispensable  for  the  validity  of  this 
argument  that  the  sanctity  of  the  children  should  have  been 
exclusively  derived  from  the  sanctity  of  the  marriage,  for  on 
no  other  hypothesis  could  the  sanctity  of  the  children  have 
furnished  a  proof  of  the  sanctity  of  the  marriage.  Had  the 
children  been  baptized  they  would  have  been  holy,  in  their 
own  right,  as  members  of  Christ,  and  a  father  who  had  had 
his  children  baj^tized  would  have  effectually  demolished  the 
Apostle's  reasoning  by  the  simj)le  reply  that  the  holiness 
of  his  children,  as  members  of  Christ's  Church,  was  no  reason 
for  his  thinking  the  marriage  holy,  or  his  not  putting  away 
his  unbelieving  wife.  Many,  indeed,  have  explained  the 
term  holy  as  meaning  "  have  been  admitted  to  baptism," 
making  the  verse  say  that  if  the  faith  of  the  believing  part- 

*  August,  1852.    Art.  3. 
5 


98  PROSELYTE     BAPTISM. 

ner  had  not  sanctified  the  marriage,  the  children  would  not 
have  been  admitted  to  baptism,  whereas  they  had  been 
baptized.     But  this  is  to  re-write  Scriptw'e^  not  to  interpret 

ity 

Thus,  then,  there  is  not  a  suigle  clear  scriptural  argument 
in  favor  of  infant  l^aptism,  not  one  but  has  been  given  up 
by  several  Pedobaptists,  the  most  enHghtened  who  have 
examined  this  subject  within  the  last  few  years.  Proselyte 
baptism  used,  however,  to  be  strongly  urged.  The  Jews, 
it  was  said,  had  a  custom  of  baptizmg  all  their  proselytes,  and 
if  the  head  of  a  family  was  initiated,  all  the  children  were 
subjected  to  the  same  rite.  Hence  it  was  inferred  that  un- 
less some  distinct  proof  to  the  contrary  could  be  shown,  it 
must  be  taken  for  granted  that  the  same  rule  w^as  applied 
to  the  Christian  as  to  the  Jewish  ceremony. 

To  tliis  Baptists  usually  replied  that  even  supposmg  this 
custom  could  be  proved  to  extend  back  to  apostolic  times, 
the  inference  would  not  follow,  owing  to  the  utter  difference 
of  the  two  dispensations.  The  baptism  of  John,  as  one 
emphatically  of  ]"epentance,  could  only  have  embraced  adults. 
"  Proselyte  baptism,"  Augusti  says,  "  included  the  children 
with  the  parents ;  John's  baptism  excluded  both  children 
and  the  female  sex,  forming  the  genn  from  which  Christian 
baptism  developed  itself"  This  would  effectually  cut  off 
any  siich  inferential  connection.  But  it  is  now  admitted 
that  there  is  no  proof  of  the  Je\\'ish  rite  in  question  untU 
two  hundred  years  after  the  time  of  our  Saviour.  Much 
learning  has  been  expended  on  this  subject.  Professor 
Jacobi  says  that  the  opinion  that  proselyte  baptism  was  be- 
fore Christian  ba})tisni  "  is  not  at  all  tenable,"  but  that  it 
was  probably  only  a  purifying  ceremony.  It  was  raised  to 
the  character  of  an  initiatory  and  indispensable  rite  co- 


SILENCE    OF     CHURCH     HISTORY.  99 

ordinate  with  that  of  sacrifice  and  circumcision,  only  after 
the  destruction  of  the  Temple.  Then  sacrifices  had  ceased, 
and  the  circumcision  of  proselytes  had,  by  reason  of  public 
edicts,  become  more  and  more  impracticable." ' 

Such  is  the  view,  also,  of  Professor  Stuart,  who  urges  a 
still  more  decisive  objection  to  this  as  any  foundation  for 
ordinary  infimt  baptism,  i.  e.,  that  it  certainly  did  not  fol- 
low the  rule  of  cu'cumcision,  never  being  administered  to 
those  children  born  after  their  parents  became  Jews.  He, 
therefore,  properly  regards  it  as  a  surprising  thing  that  this 
should  be  adduced  in  proof  of  infant  baptism.^ 

§  III.    Church  History. 

(a.)  The  cause  of  its  silence  as  to  Infant  Baptism. 

The  great  rehance  of  our  Pedobaptist  brethren  has  been 
upon  Church  History.  It  has  been  urged  that,  by  its  means 
at  least,  infant  baptism  could  be  clearly  proved  of  apostolic 
origin,  and  that  thus  the  very  sUence  of  the  New  Testament 
must  have  arisen  from  its  being  a  matter  of  course.  To 
this  Baptists  replied,  that  to  call  in  the  aid  of  tradition  and 
history,  was  to  give  up  the  sufticiency  and  completeness  of 
Scripture,  and  cut  up  by  the  root  the  great  Protestant 
principle  which  makes  the  Bible  our  rule  of  faith.  This, 
and  more  than  this.  Chevalier  Bunsen  fully  admits  :  ^  "  The 
Reformation  appealed  to  Scriptui-e  alone,  and  accepted  only 
with  a  general  reserve  the  creeds  of  the  councils,  *  *  * 
yet  the  Reformation  accepted  Pedobaptism,  although  its 

'  Katto,  Art.  Baptism. 

2  Art.  on  the  Mode  of  Baptism,  Biblical  Repository,  April,  1833,  sec.  3. 

3  Hippolytua  and  his  Age,  vol.  ii.  pp.  104,  5. 


100  DR.   wall's   great   fault. 

leaders  were  more  or  less  cncare  that  it  was  neither  scriptural 
nor  apostolic.'''' 

Baptists,  liowever,  liaA^e  had  no  objection  impartially  to 
examine  the  testimony  of  Church  History,  provided  that, 
like  that  of  all  other  witnesses,  we  were  at  Uberty  to  cross- 
question  it,  where  contradictory,  and  were  not  bound  to  re- 
ceive every  thing  asserted,  however  improbable,  as  the  final 
decisions  of  a  judge  in  a  court  of  law,  or  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. They  contended  that,  if  fairly  examined,  the  earliest 
records  of  Ecclesiastical  History  were  quite  adverse  to  the 
idea  of  mfant  baptism  being  apostolic  in  its  origin.  Rather 
m.ore  than  a  hundred  years  ago  Drs.  Wall  and  Gale  dis- 
cussed the  question  in  this  spirit,  Tvdth  a  degree  of  learning 
and  abiUty  that  promised  to  exhaust  the  subject.  But  the 
death  of  Gale  suddenly  arrested  it  on  his  side ;  nor  has  it 
been  continued  since  Dr.  WaU.  left  it,  in  England  or  Amer- 
ica, except  in  a  fragmentary  manner  Among  the  Germans, 
however,  the  fresh  spirit  of  historical  criticism  awakened  by 
Niebuhr,  and  his  more  j  udicious  followers,  has  begun  to  throw 
the  impartial  light  of  history  upon  this  vexed  question. 

The  chief  fault  of  Doctor  WaU  is  one  that  he  shared  in 
degree  with  Bingham,  i.  e.,  of  supposing  that  because  clear 
and  undeniable  traces  of  an  institution  might  b©  found  in 
the  third  and  fourth  centuries,  therefore,  it  must  be  supposed 
to  have  existed  in  the  first,  except  so  far  as  its  intermediate 
sources  of  development  could  be  clearly  and  positively 
traced.  This  made  all  the  silence  of  Church  history  favor- 
able to  the  existence  of  any  custom,  however  coiTupt,  which 
arose  by  such  slow  degrees  as  not  to  awaken  immediate 
general  opposition.  In  this  case  it  threw  on  the  Baptists 
the  difficult  task  of  proving  a  negative  ;  and  because  they 
could  not  bring  forward  passages  objecting  against  infant 


RISE     OF     IXFANT    BAPTISM.  101 

baptism  before  it  existed,  it  was  supposed  to  be  shown  that 
these  authors  must  all  have  acquiesced  m,.and  approved  of  it. 

But  witliin  the  last  fifty  years  a  spirit  of  more  careful 
historical  criticism  has  prevailed ;  and  it  is  now  well  ascer- 
tauied  that  where  a  custom  like  mfant  baptism  is  supposed 
extensively  to  have  existed,  we  shall  be  sure  to  find  inci- 
dents or  allusions  to  it  in  certain  places  in  Church  history, 
as  soon  as  it  really  became  current.  If  in  the  fifth  century 
"we  have  clear  and  frequent  traces  of  a  custom  ^-ide-spread 
and  becoming  universal,  but  fewer  and  fainter  allusions  to 
it  in  smiilar  circumstances  in  the  third,  and  none  in  the 
second  or  m  Scripture,  we  have  a  right  to  mfer  that  silence 
as  strong  evidence  against  the  origmal  prevalence,  if  not 
the  existence,  of  the  usage  in  question.  It  is  thus  that  the 
origm  of  Ecclesiastical  Councils  may  be  traced.  The  ab- 
sence of  any  protest  against  their  authority  in  the  first  two 
centuries  is  the  best  proof,  not  of  their  universal  recogni- 
tion, in  the  ordmary  government  of  the  churches,  but  of 
the  opposite.  Their  rising  importance  from  the  beginning 
of  the  fourth  century,  best  shows  that  they  were  not  at 
first  a  part  of  regular  Church  government.  The  same  kind 
of  silence  in  regard  to  infant  baptism  most  efiectually  dis- 
proves its  apostolic  origin. 

Doctor  Bunsen,  therefore,  says,*  "  Pedobaptism,  in  the 
more  modern  sense,  meaning  thereby  baptism  of  new-born 
infants,  ^vith  the  \dcarious  jiromises  of  parents  or  other 
sponsors,  teas  utterly  unknoion  to  the  early  Churchy  not  only 
down  to  the  end  of  the  second^  hut  indeed  to  the  middle  of 
the  third  century.^''  The  same  writer  considers  that  it  must 
have  been  unkno^\ni  to  Irenaeus  and  his  disciple,  Hippoly- 
tus,  A.D.  220,  but  that  "  C3^prian  was  the  first  father  who, 
'  Hyppolytus,  vol.  iii.  p.  180. 


102  EISE     OF    PEDOBAPTISM COLERIDGE. 

impelled  by  a  fanatical  enthusiasm  and  assisted  by  a  bad 
interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament,  established  it  as  a 
pruiciple."  Coleridge,  indeed,  -^^iting  about  the  year  1816, 
says,  "I  confine  myself  to  the  assertion — not  that  infant 
baptism  was  not — but  that  there  is  no  sufficient  proof  that 
it  was  the  practice  of  the  ApostoUc  age."  '  The  great  in- 
consistency of  this  ground,  is,  that  infant  baptism  is  just  that 
kind  of  institution  which  if  it  had  existed  must  have  given 
proofs  of  itself.  It  was  not  an  insignificant  or  occasional, 
but  a  daily  matter  among  the  first  Christians,  if  it  occurred 
at  aU.  It  was  either  universal  or  unJcrioion.  Either  a  di- 
vine command  perfectly  understood  and  obeyed ;  or  not  a 
command  at  all.  So  much,  at  least,  the  silence  of  Scripture 
must  be  allowed  to  prove.  If  it  existed  at  all  it  was  always 
practiced ;  and  then  when  the  parents  became  Christians 
all  their  young  children  were  baptized  with  them,  or  as 
soon  as  they  were  born.  To  suppose  that  all  this  could 
have  existed  T\ithout  lea\dng  j)roofs,  one  way  or  the  other, 
is  only  a  transition  state  of  opinion.  In  the  private  notes 
of  the  same  writer  on  the  works  of  Robinson,  there  is  this 
passage,  "  When  the  Baptist  says :  I  think  myself  obliged 
to  obey  Christ  scrupulously,  and  believing  that  he  did  not 
command  infant  baptism,  but  on  the  contrary,  baptism  un- 
der conditions  incompatible  with  infancy  (faith  and  repent- 
ance), therefore,  I  can  not  "ndth  mnocence,  because  I  can 
not  in  faith,  baptize  an  infant  at  all,  or  an  adult  otherwise 
than  by  immersion,  I  honor  the  man  and  incline  to  his  doc- 
trine as  the  more  ScripturalP  ^ 

The  progressive  weight  of  this  kind  of  evidence  on  the 
mind  of  Neander  is  very  traceable  in  the  difference  between 

'  Aids  to  Reflection,  Aphorism  on  Baptism,  note. 
2  "Works,  vol.  v.  p.  642.    Harper. 


XEANDEK'S     LATER     VIEWS.  103 

the  former  and  latter  editions  of  the  first  vokxme  of  his 
Church  History.     At  first  (in  1825),  he  wrote  thus : 

"  It  is  certain  that  Christ  did  not  ordain  infant  baptism. 
We  can  not  prove  that  the  Apostles  ordained  it.  From 
the  deficiency  of  historical  documents  during  the  first  half 
of  this  period  we  must  also  avow  that  the  want  of  any  pos- 
itive testimony  to  the  custom  can  not  be  brought  as  au 
argument  against  its  antiquity."  ' 

But  in  1842,  seventeen  years  later,  the  defects  in  the  first 
edition  appeared  to  Neander  so  glaring  that  he  re-wrote 
nearly  the  whole.  At  the  same  place  in  the  second  edition 
he  says : 

"Baptism  was  administered  at  first  only  to  adtdts,  as 
men  were  accustomed  to  conceive  baptism  and  faith  as 
strictly  connected.  We  have  all  reason  for  not  deriving 
infant  baptism,  from  Apostolic  institution."  ^ 

In  the  second  volume,  alluding  to  the  period  from  a.d.  312 
to  590,  after  saying  that  in  theory  infant  baptism  was  now  gen- 
erally esteemed  an  apostohcal  institution  he  carefuUy  adds : 
"  But  from  the  theory  on  this  point  we  can  draw  no  kifer- 
ence  with  regard  to  the  practice.  It  was  still  very  far  from 
being  the  case,  especially  in.  the  Greek  Church  that  infiint 
baptism  although  acknowledged  to  be  necessary,  was  gener- 
ally introduced  into  practice  :  among  Christians  of  the  East, 
infant  baptism,  though  in  theory  acknowledged  to  be  neces- 
sary [to  salvation],  yet  entered  so  rarehj  and  loith  so  much 
difficulty  into  the  Church  life  dm-uag  the  first  half  of  this 
period." ' 

Intermediate,  chronologically  between  the  first  and  sec- 
ond editions  of  Ms  History,  stands  the  pubHcation  of  "  The 

1  See  Rose's  Translation,  voL  L  p.  166. 

2  VoL  i.  p.  311.     Torrey.  »  VoL  iL  p.  319.    Torrey. 


104  BUXSEN     ON     INFANT    BAPTISM. 

Planting  and  Training  of  the  Christian  Church."  And  it  is 
intermediate  in  the  measure  of  its  certainty  as  to  the  origin 
of  infant  baptism.  "  As  baptism  was  closely  united  with  a 
conscious  entrance  on  Christian  communion ;  faith  and  bap- 
tism were  always  connected  with  one  another,  and  thus  it  is 
in  the  highest  degree  irrobahle  that  baptism  was  performed 
only  hi  instances  where  both  could  meet  together,  and  that 
the  practice  of  mfant  baptism  was  miknown  at  this  pe- 
riod." ' 

Dr.  Bunsen  m  "  Hippolytus  and  his  Times"  thus  sums  up 
his  o"VVTi  historical  views  of  this  question  in  one  place :  "^ 
"The  diflerence,  then,  between  the  ante-Nicene  and  the 
later  Church  was  essentially  this :  the  later  Church,  with 
the  exception  of  converts,  only  baptized  new-l:>orn  infants, 
and  she  did  so  on  principle.  The  ancient  \i.  6.,  ante-Xicene] 
Church,  as  a  general  rule,  baptized  adults,  and  only  after 
they  had  gone  through  a  course  of  instruction  ;  and,  as  the 
exception,  only  Christian  children  who  had  not  arrived  at 
years  of  maturity,  hut  never  infants.  Tertullian's  opposi- 
tion is  to  the  baptism  of  young  gro^^dng  children.  lie  does 
not  say  one  word  about  new-born  inlants.  Xeither  does 
Origen,  when  his  expressions  are  accurately  weighed.  Cy- 
prian and  some  other  African  bishops,  his  cotemporaries,  at 
the  close  of  the  third  century,  were  the  first  who  viewed 
baptism  in  the  light  of  a  wasliing  away  of  the  universal  sin- 
fiilness  of  human  nature,  and  connected  this  idea  -R-ith  that 
ordmance  of  the  Old  Testament — circumcision." 

He  goes  on  to  give  the  reasons  why  "  the  Church  has  been 

dragged  into  this  icrong  path  /"  and  concludes  by  saying, 

"  This  is  the  consequence  of  the  admission  of  an  untruth. 

When  the  Church  attached  rights  and  promises  of  blessmg 

'  Book  iiL  chap.  6.  2  VoL  iii.  p.  194. 


RISE     OF     INFANT     BAPTISM BUNSEN.  105 

to  any  thing  except  to  the  conscious  abandonment  of  sin, 
and  to  the  voluntary  voto  of  dedicating  life  and  soul  to  the 
Lord,  the  consciousness  of  sm  and  the  longing  for  real 
truthful  reformation  died  away  in  the  same  proportion 
among  her  members." 

Comparmg  ancient  baptism  with  modern,  he  says,'  "But 
if  you  look  closely  into  the  ecclesiastical  condition  of  the 
two  ages,  are  you  not  overpowered  by  one  predomuiant 
feeling  ?  And  is  not  this  the  feeling  that  in  the  one  age  we 
find  upon  the  whole,  connection,  reality,  internal  and  exter- 
nal truth ;  in  the  other  little  else  but  patchwork  and  ruins, 
shams  and  phantoms  ?  That  in  one  case  a  real  life  was 
lived,  a  life  of  freedom  as  to  the  Church  and  as  to  the  in- 
dividual ;  that  in  the  other  conventionalism  is  fostered,  or 
rather  in  most  instances  maintained  by  fire  and  sword,  by 
the  tyranny  of  State  Churches,  or  by  the  unthinking  super- 
stition of  habit  ?  and  that  such  a  state  of  things  is  most  ill- 
advisedly  vaunted  as  possessing  vitality,  while  it  most  im- 
pudently proclaims  itself  perfect  and  infallible. 

"Tlie  ancient  baptism  comprised  on  Gospel  grounds /bwr 
spiritual  elements — instruction,  exammation,  the  vow,  the 
initiation.  *  *  *  Thus  did  the  beggar  enter  into  the 
communion  of  the  faithful,  thus  the  emperor  when  he  ven- 
tured to  do  so.  Constantme  considered  of  it  until  his  death- 
bed." "  It  is  impossible  but  that  this  ceremony  should  have 
produced  a  great  general  impression,  which  was  not  dimin- 
ished if  the  initiated  were  the  child  of  Christian  parents. 
The  act  was  his  axon  as  much  as  it  was  in  the  case  of  a  con- 
vert fi-om  heathenism.  The  very  gradual  advancement, 
even  of  the  age  of  baptism  in  the  case  of  children  of 
Christian  families,  must  have  been  injurious  to  its  charac- 

'  VoL  iii.  p.  201. 
5* 


106  KISE     OF     INFANT     BAPTISM BUNSEN. 

ter  as  a  solemnity.  "We  have  already  seen  hoAV,  even 
before  the  close  of  our  period,  [a.d.  325]  the  baptism  of 
new-born  infants  grew  out  of  that  of  childi-en  advancing 
toward  the  age  of  boyhood.  We  have  seen  how,  fi-om  the 
baptism  of  the  spirit,  which  Christ  instituted,  j^eople  re- 
lapsed mto  ceremonial  law,  and  fell  back  upon  the  shadow  of 
a  Je'R'ish  custom  (cu-cumcision)  which  had  ceased  to  be  bind- 
ing Avith  the  extinction  of  the  nation,  and  now  was  made  a 
sanction  for  the  rehgion  of  the  new  covenant  of  humanity. 

"  Li  consequence  of  this  alteration  and  complete  subver- 
sion of  its  main  features,  brought  about  principally  by  the 
Afi'icans  of  the  tliird  century  and  completed  by  Augustine, 
these  natural  elements  have  been,  in  the  course  of  nearly 
fifteen  centuries,  most  tragically  decomposed^  and  nothing 
is  noxi}  remaining  any  lohere  hut  ruins.  In  the  East  people 
adhered  to  immersion,  although  this  spnbol  of  man  volim- 
tarily  and  consciously  making  a  vow  of  the  sacrifice  of  self, 
lost  all  meaning  in  the  immersion  of  a  new-Tiorn  child. 
The  Eastern  Church,  moreover,  practiced  the  ujiction  im- 
mediately after  the  unmersion,  although  that  unction  un- 
plies  even  more  than  immersion,  man's  full  consciousness ; 
and  is  to  be  the  seal  of  a  free  pledge  of  a  responsible  act. 
Yet  the  Eastei'n  Church  requii-es,  nevertheless,  the  genei'al 
recognition  of  both  as  necessary  to  salvation,  and  denies 
there  is  any  eificacy  in  the  Western  form  of  baptism. 

"  The  Western  Church  evidently  commenced  her  career 
under  the  guidance  of  Rome,  with  more  freedom  of  thought. 
She  abolished,  together  -with  adult  baptism  its  symbol,  im- 
mersion, and  introduced  sprinkling  in  its  stead.  She  re- 
tained agam  unction  (the  chrisma)  by  way  of  confii'mation, 
and  separated  the  two  acts."  ' 

1  Page  204. 


NORTH     BRITISH     REVIEW.  107 

Such  OA'erwhelming  concessions  and  j^roofs  of  the  truth 
of  Baptist  views,  as  to  the  unscripturahiess  of  infont  baptism, 
as  abound  m  the  subsequent  pages  of  these  volumes  make 
it  only  astonishing  that  even  with  all  the  restrictions  he 
Avould  throw  around  it,  Bunsen  should  advocate  retaining 
it  at  all.  He  admits  that  it  will  appear  strange,  and  even 
allows,  that,  in  order  to  effect  it,  "  in  the  first  place  the  doc- 
trine of  Biblical  haptmn  must  be  reformed^  '  Thus,  to 
accommodate  the  religious  prejudices  of  the  age,  BibUcal 
Christianity  is  to  be  modified,  ay  and  "  reformecP''  at  pleas- 
ure !  Thus  Pedobaptism  contains  the  germs  of  Popery,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  of  German  skepticism  on  the  other. 

The  "  ISTorth  British  Review"  not  only  concedes  freely 
and  repeatedly  that  "  the  only  baptism  known  to  the  New 
Testament,  was  that  of  adults,"  on  their  profession  of  faith, 
but  argues  strongly  from  that,  accounting  for  the  early 
views  of  the  connection  of  baptism  \\nth  a  state  of  salva- 
tion. Revie^ATng  "  Hippolytus  and  his  Times"  it  remarks" 
in  a  note  that  "  the  correctness  of  the  picture  of  ancient 
baptism,  given  by  Dr.  Bunsen,  will  not,  we  apprehend,  be 
disputed  by  any  one  icho  is  content  to  accept  the  mere  facts 
of  the  case,''''  and  that  it  is  "  a  subject  on  which  they  could 
have  wished  especially  to  dwell."  They  point  the  attention 
of  the  reader  to  what  Dr.  Bunsen  has  so  clearly  showTi  to 
be  the  animating  principle  of  baptism,  namely,  "  the  thank- 
ful offering  of  the  self-will  to  God,"  and  significantly  attemjDt 
to  plead  that  "  the  question  of  the  validity  of  infant  bap- 
tism is  one  separated  from  that  of  its  direct  apostolic  au- 
thority.'''' Since,  then,  the  anhnating  principle  and  correct 
form  are  both  confessedly  wanting,  but  for  the  customs  of 
early  education  it  w^ould  be  easier  far  to  turn  Quaker  and 
I  Page  211.  2  May,  1853. 


108  ANCIENT     CATECHUMENS. 

deny  the  obligation  of  any  Ibaptism,  than  admit  the  perpe- 
tviity  of  the  command,  and  yet  plead  that  it  is  fulfilled  in 
such  an  emasculated  rite  as  this. 

Let  any  Christian  read  in  Neander's  life  of  Christ^  the 
chapter  on  "The  Church"  and  its  object,  let  him  mark  its 
fundamental  idea  as  there  laid  down,  i.  e.,  a  commimity 
founded  on  the  principle  of  all  its  members  being  absolutely/ 
subordinated  in  heart  to  God  and  Christ  /  '^  and  then  con- 
sider the  mevitable  effect  of  admitting  every  infant  of  pious 
parents  to  its  initiating  rite.  Let  him  bear  in  mind  that 
the  very  idea,  and  even  the  name  of  the  Church,  are  to  be 
traced  back  to  Christ  himself,  no  less  than  a  voluntary  bap- 
tism as  its  initiatory  rite,  and  then  behold  infant  baptism 
sweeping,  as  it  does,  the  world  mto  the  Church,  and  say  if 
it  at  all  realizes  that  conception.  Li  fact  the  true  question 
lying  at  the  bottom  of  all  this  is,  whether  the  Church  is  a 
divine  institution.  If  so  infant  baptism  radically  alters  it, 
and  is  therefore  uavaUd. 

(5.)   The  Catechumenical  system  decisive. 

But  it  has  not  been  merely  the  silence  of  early  Church 
history  that  has  disproved  infant  baptism.  It  has  been 
clearly  shown  that  there*  were  other  institutions  among  the 
early  Christians  utterly  opposed  to  the  bestowment  of  this 
rite  on  infants. 

The  catechumens  of  the  Ancient  Church  were  a  body  of 
persons  composed  entu'ely  of  such  as  were  preparing  for 
baptism  by  mstruction  and  special  prayer.  They  were  at 
fii'st  something  hke  the  inquirers  connected  ^vith  many  of 
our  modern  evangelical  churches,  and  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  Methodist  custom  of  anxious  seats  and  classes  of 
'  Book  iv.  part  il  chap.  4.  2  page  124,  Harper. 


CATECHUMENS     ALL     UNBAPTIZED.  109 

penitents  Avas  derived  by  Mr.  Wesley,  cliiefly  from  reading 
the  accounts  of  this  order  in  the  ancient  congregations. 
Indeed  the  difference  between  them  lies  chiefly  in  two 
pomts :  1st.  That  as  more  attention  was  bestowed  in  the 
ancient  classes,  on  the  facts  of  Christianity,  than  is  now 
done  in  our  Bible  classes,  so  by  degrees  less  examination 
was  made  as  to  experimental  piety.  2d.  AU  the  ancient 
catechumens  were  persons  preparing  for  baptism  (an  ordi- 
nance origiuaUy  regarded  as  the  profession  of  regeneration,  by 
degrees  as  its  consummation,  and  m  later  times  too  often  con- 
founded with  regeneration  itself),  while  Mr.  Wesley's  anxious 
classes  were  supposed  to  be  baptized  persons,  yet  seeking 
regeneration  by  the  spirit  of  God.  The  ancient  catechu- 
mens, then,  were  unregenerate  mquii-ers  out  of  the  Church ; 
the  modern  catechumens  were  unregenerate  mquirers  with- 
in. The  hues  of  demarcation  were  most  rigidly  drawn 
between  the  catechumens  and  the  baptized,  so  that  in  Au- 
gustme's  time,  or  as  late  as  the  year  a.d.  400,  the  question 
"  Is  he  fidelis  or  catechumenus  .^"  meant  the  same  thing  as 
the  uiquuy,  "  Is  he  yet  baptized  or  not  ?"  as  WaU  shows. 
The  catechumens  sat  in  a  specific  part  of  the  church,  had 
special  prayers  offered  for  them,  that  they  might  become  fit 
for  the  holy  mitiation,  and  were  not  allowed  to  remain  even 
in  the  house  of  worship  wliile  the  eucharist  was  celebrated. 
If  one  did  so  accidentally,  he  was  to  be  unmediately  taken 
and  baptized ;  or  if  one  was  supposed  to  be  m  danger  of 
death,  he  was  to  be  ba^rtized,  and  if  he  recovered,  the 
course  of  his  religious  instruction  completed  afterward,  but 
still  he  was  not  called,  or  considered,  or  ranked  as  a  cate- 
chumen.' 

I  Council  of  Laodicea,  Can.  47,  a.d.  361.      The  proof  of  all  this  is^un- 
questionable.     Any  one  can,  however,  easily  verify  it  for  himself,  by  con- 


110  CHILDREN     CATECHUirEXS. 

From  the  time  of  Tertullian,  this  order  in  Christian  con- 
gregations may  be  considered  to  have  been  iiniversal,  and 
traces  of  it  are  found  by  Augusti  as  far  back  as  a.d.  110. 
Regularly  no  person  could  be  admitted  to  baptism,  without 
being  a  catechumen.  If  there  was  danger  of  death,  excep- 
tion was  made,  but  not  otherwise.  The  orduiary  period  for 
remammg  in  this  state  of  mstruction,  was  three  years,  but 
R^here  a  person  was  earnest  m  his  attendance  and  disposition, 
and  well  mstructed  in  the  history  of  Christ,  and  the  doctrines 
of  Christianity,  he  was  admitted  much  sooner,  often  in  a  few 
months  or  weeks.  But  all  had  to  be  made  catechumens 
fii'st.  Baptists  have  always  contended  that  the  children  of 
pious  parents  were  no  exceptions  to  this  rule ;  that  by  degrees 
they  were  often  made  nominal  catechmnens  at  a  very  early 
age,  and  frequently  remained  all  theh*  lives  members  of  this 
class,  being  only  baptized,  like  Constantme,  just  before  death. 
Thus,  BasU  (a.d.  350),  exhortmg  the  catechumens  to  bap- 
tism, alludes  to  this,  it  is  clamied  when  he  says :  "  Do  you 
demur  and  loiter  and  put  it  oif,  when  you  have  been  from 
a  child  catechised  in  the  Word ;  are  you  not  yet  acquamted 
with  the  truth?  Having  heen  always  learning  it,  are  you 
not  yet  come  to  the  knoAvledge  of  it  ?  A  seeker  all  your 
life  long,  a  considerer  till  you  are  old.  When  will  you  be- 
come one  of  us."'^  Dr.  Wall  and  others  have  denied  that 
these  youths  could  be  children  of  Christians  ;  but  from  that 
day  to  this,  the  priests  of  the  Romish  and  of  the  Greek 
Churches  have  always  gone  through  the  form  of  first  mak- 
ing every  child  of  Christian  parents  a  catechumen  before 
they  baptize  it. 

suiting  "  Bingham's  Christian  Antiquities,"  book  i.  chap.  3,  and  book  x. 
generally.     "  Coleman's  Christian  Antiquities,"  chap.  ii.  sec.  5. 
*  Basil  Oratio  Exhort,  ad  Baptismum. 


BASIL.  Ill 

It  would  seem  that  the  larger  part  of  the  catechumens  ad- 
dressed by  Basil,  had  been  made  such  in  childhood.  Hence 
they  must  have  been  the  children  of  pious  parents.  Dr. 
Wall  admits  that  when  he  first  saw  the  above  extract,  he 
thought  it  "  the  strongest  evidence  against  the  general 
practice  of  infant  baptism  in  those  times."  Baptists  think 
so  still.  His  suj^position  that  so  large  a  proportion  of  this 
body  were  the  children  of  catechumens,  seems  to  them  out  of 
all  reason.  Besides,  they  say  when  afterward  mfant  baptism 
did  prevail,  as  in  the  time  of  Justinian,  a.d.  526,  it  was  an 
established  rule  that  on  any  adult  beconiing  a  catechumen, 
his  children  were  all  bcq^tized  forthwith  ;  even  while  he  re- 
mained m  the  preparatory  state  for  two  years. 

In  proportion  as  mfant  baptism  became  general,  it  reduced 
the  eatechumenical  state  to  a  merely  nominal  thmg,  but  the 
form  of  it  was  still  strictly  adhered  to,  and  has  been  ever 
since.  In  some  Irish  Church  regulations,  probably  about 
the  year  a.d.  600,  it  is  provided  that  the  infants  of  Chris- 
tians may  be  made  catechumens  on  the  eighth  day,  and 
that  after  that  they  can  be  baptized  at  any  festival.'     At 

1  The  following  is  the  present  rule  of  the  Romish  Church :  "  The  per- 
son to  be  baptized  is  brought  or  conducted  to  the  church  door,  but  for- 
bidden to  enter  as  one  unworthy.  *  *  *  xhe  priest  then  asks  what 
he  demands  of  the  Church  of  G-od,  and  having  received  an  answer,  he 
first  instructs  him  catechetically  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Christian  faith,  of 
which  a  profession  is  made  in  baptism.  But  as  the  catechetical  form 
consists  of  question  and  answer,  if  the  person  to  be  instructed  be  an 
adult,  he  himself  answers  the  interrogatories ;  if  an  infant,  the  sponsor 
answers  according  to  the  prescribed  form,  and  enters  into  a  solemn  en- 
gagement for  the  child."  Then  follow  the  exorcism,  salt,  sign  of  the 
cross,  spittle,  renunciation,  the  oil  of  the  catechumens,  the  profession  of 
faith,  and  then  the  baptism.  An  adult  is  kept  a  catechumen  for  some 
months,  but  an  infant  is  made  a  catechumen  and  baptized  at  once.     (Gate- 


112  INSTRUCTION     BEFORE    BAPTISM. 

an  earlier  period  they  were  kept  in  this  state  till  three 
or  four  years  old,  so  that  they  might  be  taught  to  repeat  at 
baptism  some  of  the  sacred  words,  as  Gregory  Nazianzen 
recommends. 

It  follows  that  the  early  churches  all  held  it  as  a  primi- 
tive truth  that  those  born  of  Christian  parents  equally 
with  others  needed  instruction  and  the  renunciation  of  sin 
be/ore  baptistn  could  properly  and  regularly  he  adminis- 
tered. This  is  precisely  the  Baptist  theory  and  practice — 
the  point  on  which  they  diifer  from  all  Pedobaptist 
Churches.  Even  Dr.  Henry  of  New  York,  in  his  abridg- 
ment of  Bingham's  Ecclesiastical  Antiquities,  admits  that 
"  it  is  difficult  to  reconcile  the  practice  of  infant  commun- 
ion with  the  well-known  custom  of  trammg  the  yomig  for 
some  tune  as  catechumens  before  they  were  admitted  either 
to  baptism  or  the  eucharist." '  The  whole  practice  of  the 
Church  from  Auo-ustine  to  Luther  in  making  infants  cate- 
chumens  before  baptism,  is  so  far  as  it  goes,  the  admission 
of  a  witness  under  cross-examination  against  his  own  pre- 
possessions and  prejudices,  to  the  truth  of  Baptist  views. 

chism  of  the  Council  of  Trent.)  In  the  liturgy  of  the  Greek  Church,  and 
indeed  in  all  the  liturgies,  the  "  seahng"  of  infants  as  catechumens  before 
their  baptism  is  required.  In  Augustine's  time,  a.d.  400,  whenever  an 
infant  was  baptized,  the  sponsor  replied  to  the  questions  in  the  name  of 
the  child,  which  an  adult  would  have  been  taught  to  answer  as  a  cate- 
chumen, just  as  now  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  churches.  Boniface,  in  his 
correspondence  with  Augustine,  is  very  much  troubled  at  this,  and  rep- 
resents others  as  objecting  strenuously  to  it,  and  begs  for  some  more  solid 
reason  in  its  favor,  than  the  authority  of  the  Church.  "  How  can  this," 
says  Boniface  "  be  reconciled  to  truth,  which  the  sponsor  answers  in  the 
child's  name  ?"  Augustine  replies  "  You  are  wont  to  be  exceedingly 
cautious  of  any  thing  that  looks  like  a  lie." 
'  Sec.  194. 


CATECHUMENICAI.     SYSTEM.  113 

In  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuvies  the  Churches  were  in 
a  transition  state.  Two  practices  essentially  contrary  to 
each  other  prevailed — that  of  giving  catechunienical  instruc- 
tion to  children,  and  infant  baptism.  Both  could  not  have 
belonged  to  primitive  Christianity,  for  the  two  are  in  their 
very  essence  contradictory.  Prior  catechunienical  uistruc- 
tion  to  the  children  of  Christians  never  Avould  have  been 
thought  of  had  infant  baptism  been  a  universal,  or  even  a 
general  custom  when  it  arose.  As  when  a  scion,  tall  and 
vigorous,  grows  up  from  the  side  of  an  old  trunk  prostrate 
and  rotten,  we  know  that  the  ancient  tree  must  have  lived, 
decayed,  and  fallen  before  the  young  one  began  to  grow, 
and  oversj^read  it  ■with  roots ;  so  when  we  see  infant  bap- 
tism after  the  fourth  century,  waxing  strong,  becoming 
universal,  trampling  on  catechumenical  mstruction  and  re- 
ducing it  to  a  mere  form,  it  is  clear  that  this  lifeless,  pros- 
trate, and  decaying  order  must  have  existed,  and  become 
old,  before  infant  baptism,  as  a  system,  took  root  in  its 
sides,  or  to  use  Neander's  expression,  "entered  into  the 
Church  hfe."  Nor  could  the  younger  custom  have 
swelled  to  the  size  it  afterward  assmned,  and  presumed  to 
stretch  its  roots  as  they  now  lie  across  that  more  ancient 
system,  until  the  catechumenical  rank  had  been  first  up- 
heaved and  overthrown.  Such,  accorduig  to  the  Baptists,  is 
the  true  \aew  of  the  catechumenical  system,  such  the  proof 
it  affords  of  the  unscriptural  origin  of  infant  baptism. 

Let  us  observe  how  far  recent  researches  have  sustained 
this  view.  A  Mr.  Coleman  has  done  a  good  service  to 
the  churches  in  this  country  in  condensing  and  translat- 
ing from  the  works  of  Augusti  on  Christian  Antiquities. 
The  following  extract  contains  in  substance  the  results  of 
that  distinguished  authority  upon  this  subject. 


114     CHANGE  MADE  BY  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

"  The  general  introduction  of  the  rite  of  infant  baptism 
has  80  far  changed  the  regulations  of  the  Church  concerning 
the  qualifications  of  candidates,  and  their  admission,  that 
what  was  formerly  the  rule  m  this  respect  has  become  the 
exception.  The  institutions  of  the  Church  dm-ing  the  first 
five  centuries  concerning  the  requisite  preparations  for  bap- 
tism, and  all  the  laws  and  rules  that  existed  during  that 
petriod,  relating  to  the  acceptance  or  rejection  of  candi- 
dates, necessarily  fell  into  disuse,  when  the  baptism  of  in- 
fants began  not  only  to  be  permitted,  but  enjoined  as  a 
duty,  and  almost  universally  observed.  The  old  rale  which 
prescribed  caution  in  the  admission  of  candidates,  and  a 
careful pi'eparation  for  the  rite  was,  after  the  sixth  century, 
appUcable  for  the  most  part  only  to  Jewish,  heathen,  and 
other  proselytes.  The  disciplme  which  was  formerly  requi- 
site, preparatory  to  baptism,  now  followed  this  rite,"  ^ 

The  whole  of  this  has  been  not  only  conceded  but  dem- 
onstrated by  Dr,  Bunsen^  with  remarkable  clearness: 

"  The  Apostolical  Church  made  the  school  the  connect- 
mg  link  between  herself  and  the  world.  The  object  of 
this  education  was  admission  mto  the  fi-ee  society,  and 
brotherhood  of  the  Christian  coirmiunity.  The  Church  ad- 
hered rigidly  to  the  principle,  as  constituting  the  true  pur- 
port of  the  baptism  ordamed  by  Christ,  that  no  one  can  be 
a  member  of  the  communion  of  saints,  but  by  his  own  free 
act  and  deed ;  his  own  solemn  vow  made  in  presence  of  the 
Church.  It  Avas  with  tliis  understanding  that  the  candidate 
for  baptism  was  immersed  m  Avater  and  admitted  as  a 
brother  upon  his  confession  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost,     It  understood,  therefore,  in  the  exact  sense, 

'  Coleman's  Christ.  Antiq.  chap.  xiv.  sec.  3. 
2  Hippolytus,  voL  ii.  pp.  179-181. 


BUNSEJf.  115 

1  Peter,  iii.  21,  not  as  being  a  mere  bodily  purifica- 
tion but  as  a  vow  made  to  God  \vdtli  a  good  conscience 
througli  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  This  vow  was  preceded  by 
a  confession  of  Christian  faith  made  in  the  face  of  the 
Church  in  which  the  catechumen  expressed  that  faith  in 
Christ  and  in  the  sufficiency  of  the  salvation  offered  by 
Him.  It  was  a  a'ow  to  live  for  the  time  to  come  to  God 
and  for  his  neighbor,  not  to  the  world  and  for  self;  a  vow 
of  faith  in  his  becoming  a  child  of  God,  through  the  com- 
munion of  His  only-begotten  Son,  in  the  Holy  Ghost ;  a 
vow  of  the  most  solemn  kmd,  for  life  and  for  death.  The 
keeping  of  this  pledge  was  the  condition  of  continuance  in 
the  Church,  its  infringement  entailed  repentance  or  ex-com- 
munication. All  Church  discipline  was  based  ui^on  this 
voluntary  pledge,  and  the  responsibility  thereby  self-im- 
posed. But  how  could  such  a  vow  be  received  without  ex- 
amination ?  How  could  such  examination  be  passed  ^yiih.- 
out  instruction  and  observation  ? 

"  As  a  general  rule  the  ancient  Church  fixed  three  years 
for  this  preparation,  supposing  the  candidate,  whether 
heathen  or  Jew,  to  be  competent  to  receive  it.  With 
Christian  chUdi'en  the  condition  was  the  same,  except  that 
the  term  of  probation  was  curtailed  according  to  circiun- 
stances,  Pedobaptism  in  the  more  modern  sense,  meanmg 
thereby  baptism  of  new-born  infants  with  the  vicarious 
promises  of  parents  or  other  sponsors,  was  utterly  iniknown 
to  the  early  Church  not  only  do-«Ti  to  the  end  of  the  sec- 
ond, but  iadeed  to  the  middle  of  the  third  century.  We 
will  show  in  a  subsequent  page  how,  toward  the  close  of 
the  second  century,  this  practice  originated  ui  the  baptism 
of  clnldi'en  of  a  more  advanced  age," 

Neander.  has  shown  the  derangement  produced  in  the 


116  neander's   views. 

whole  church  service  by  the  iutroduction  of  mfant  bap- 
tism destroying  the  more  ancient  rank  of  the  catechumens.' 
Speaking  of  the  period  between  Constantine  and  Gregory 
the  Great  (a.d.  312-590),  says: 

"  With  reference  to  the  two  constituent  portions  of  the 
Church  assembhes,  the  catechumens  and  baptized  behevers, 
the  whole  serA"ice  was  di\ided  into  two  portions,  one  in 
which  the  catechumens  were  aUowed  to  join,  embracing  the 
reading  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  sermon — the  prevail- 
ingly didactic  portion ;  and  the  other  in  which  the  baptized 
alone  could  take  part,  embraemg  whatever  was  designed  to 
represent  the  feUowship  of  believers — the  communion  and 
aU  the  prayers  which  preceded  it.  These  were  caUed  the 
missa  catechumenoruni  and  the  missa  fidelium,  which  di- 
vision must  of  course  have  fallen  into  disuse  after  the  gen- 
eral introduction  of  infant  baptism.'''' 

The  same  author  has  shown  from  the  ancient  foi"mularies, 
that  they  must  have  originated  in  a  period  of  the  history  of 
the  Church  when  infant  baptism  had  no  existence,  but  cate- 
chetical instruction  preceded  the  initiatory  rite. 

Some  of  the  questions  and  answers  stiU  preserved  by  the 
Roman  Catholic  and  Greek  Churches,  or  even  by  the  Church 
of  England,  and  other  reformed  communions,  embalm,  as  it 
were,  within  their  encrusted  folds  the  dead  figure  of  that 
which  once  had  vitality,  the  formula  of  a  beheving  catechu- 
men applying  for  baptism.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the 
infant  is  stUl  asked  in  these  forms  if  he  desires  to  be  bap- 
tized ;  if  he  renounces  the  devil  and  all  his  works ;  if  he  be- 
lieves all  the  articles  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  if  he  will 
obediently  keep  God's  holy  will  and  commandments.  Ne- 
ander^  j lastly  says  of  all  this  that  it  "originated  in  a  period 
I  Church  Hist.  vol.  iL  p.  325.  2  Vol.  iL  p.  665. 


HOW     IT    ORIGIXATED.  117 

when  infant  baptism  had  as  yet  no  existence,  and  was  after- 
ward applied  without  alteration  to  childi-en,  because  men 
shrunk  from  undertaking  to  introduce  any  change  in  the 
consecrated  formula  established  by  apostoUc  authority." 

Let  any  one  examine  the  work  known  as  "  The  Apostolic 
Constitutions,"  containing  as  it  does,  formularies,  enlarged 
indeed,  and  interpolated  as  late  as  the  sixth  century,  but 
presenting,  in  the  main,  a  fair  picture  of  the  Church  in  the 
third,  and  he  wiU  find  the  services  they  give  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  baptism  to  be  for  adults  altogether,  and  not 
for  mfants,  even  while  infant  baptism  is  commended  by  them 
in  one  or  two  later  passages. 

Nothing  is,  therefore,  more  clear  than  that  the  whole 
ground  on  which  the  divine  authority  of  infant  baptism  has 
been  supposed,  by  our  Pedobaptist  brethren,  for  centuries 
to  rest,  has  utterly  given  way  and  been  abandoned,  not  only 
silently  by  large  masses  of  evangelical  Christians  m  the 
country,  but  openly  and  earnestly  in  argument  by  nearly 
all  those  persons  of  learning  in  Europe  whose  studies  have 
led  them  impartially  to  examine  the  question  in  the  light  of 
the  present  age.  Dr.  Bunsen  says  "  we  are  at  this  moment 
better  able  than  either  the  defenders  or  opponents  of  infant 
baptism  have  hitherto  been,  to  explain  hoxo  it  originated^ 


§  lY.    The  Eise  of  Ixpaxt  Baptism  Traced. 

Between  thirty  anS  forty  years  ago,  when,  in  England 
and  Scotland,  Church  history  was  imder  an  eclipse  even 
among  respectable  di-vdnes,  Dr.  Chalmers  urged  the  follow- 
ing as  a  chief  argument  in  favor  of  infant  baptism  : 

"  There  is  no  satisfactory  historical  evidence  of  our  prac- 
tice having  ever  crept  in — the  innovation  of  a  later  period  in 


118  DK.     ALEXANDER. 

the  history  of  the  Church.  Had  infant  baptism  sprung  up 
as  a  new  piece  of  sectai-ianism,  it  would  not  have  escaped 
the  notice  of  the  authorship  of  the  times.  But  there  is  no 
credible  written  memorial  of  its  ever  having  entered  among 
us  as  a  novelty,  and  we  have,  therefore,  the  strongest  reason 
to  beUeve  that  it  has  come  doAvn  in  one  uncontrolled  tide 
of  example  and  observation  from  the  days  of  the  Apos- 
tles." ' 

Even  Dr.  Alexander  tells  us  in  his  Life  that  he  at  one  time 
gave  up  baj^tizing  mfknts,  but  that  this  was  one  of  those 
"  considerations,"  which  he  says,  "  kept  me  back  fi-om  joining 
the  Baptists,  i.  e.,  that  the  universal  prevalence  of  infant 
baptism  as  early  as  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  was  imac- 
coimtable  on  the  supposition  that  no  such  j^ractice  existed 
in  the  times  of  the  Apostles."  ^ 

It  is  just  here  that  the  historical  researches  of  imj^artial 
Pedobaptists,  within  the  last  half  century,  have  so  fully  sub- 
stantiated all  that  the  Baptists  had  claimed. 

1  Lecture  xiv.  on  Romans. 

2  The  other  consideration  was  that  "  if  the  Baptists  are  right,  they  are 
the  only  Christian  Church  on  earth,  and  all  other  denominations  are  out  of 
the  visible  Church.  Besides  I  could  not  see  how  they  could  obtain  a 
vaUd  baptism."  The  sentiment  of  the  former  clause  of  this  sentence 
has  been  considered  in  my  little  work  on  Communion.  As  to  the  latter 
Dr.  Alexander  should  have  been  aware  that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
has  ever  held  that  "the  minister  of  baptism,  in  case  of  necessity,  is  the 
first  person  who  passes  by  having  the  use  of  his  reason  of  whatever  sex 
or  religion,^''  and  that  this  necessity  even  needs  not  to  be  extreme,  but  it 
is  sufficient  for  it  to  be  reasonable.  (Dens.  TheoL  De  Baptismo,  n.  12, 
3,  4.)  So  that  Dr.  Alexander's  scruples  were  ultra  High  Church,  and 
tending  even  beyond  the  Church  of  Rome  itself  to  make  the  validity  of 
the  sacraments  depend  on  apostoUc  succession.  There  is  no  possibility 
of  any  Protestant  or  Papist  now  assuring  himself  that  there  is  no  defect- 
ive link  in  hia  chain  of  succession,  on  Dr.  Alexander's  principles 


JUSTIN     MAKTTB.  119 

Now,  for  instance,  it  is  conceded  by  the  most  respectable 
authorities,  that  Justm  Martyr  (a,d.  140)  could  have  known 
notlung  of  infant  baptism.  As  Semler  says,  "  From  Justia 
Martyr's  description  of  baptism  we  learn  that  it  was  ad- 
ministered only  to  adults.  He  says  '  we  were,  corporally, 
born  A\'ithout  our  wWl,  xcct'  ufayTjv,  but  we  are  not  to  remaia 
children  of  necessity  and  ignorance  (as  to  our  biith),  but 
in  baptism  are  to  have  choice,  knowledge,  etc.  This  we 
learned  from  the  apostles.' " 

It  seems  astonishing  that  persons  could  ever  have  thought 
other\vise  concerning  this  most  unportant  Christian  writer, 
for  not  only  here  have  we  this  distinct  assertion  that  in 
baptism  we  must  have  "  choice"  and  "  knowledge,"  but  in 
his  first  apology  presented  to  the  emperor,  he  undertakes 
at  length  to  relate  the  manner  in  which  we,  "  ha\ing  been 
renewed  by  Christ,  dedicate  ourselves  to  God"  in  baptism. 
He  says  that  those  who  "  are  persuaded  and  believe  the 
things  taught  by  us  are  true  and  promise  to  hve  according 
to  them,"  after  praying  and  fasting  and  asking  God  to  for- 
give them  are  "  conducted  by  us  to  some  place  where  there 
is  water,"  and  that  "  they  are  then  bathed  in  water  (ea^  t()ts 
XovTQov  TioiovvTiu)  in  the  name  of  the  Lord-God,  the  Father  of 
all,  and  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit." 

Neander  therefore  says  that  Irenajus,  a.d.  180,  is  the  first 
Church  teacher  in  whom  we  find  any  allusion  to  infant  bap- 
tism, and  quotes  from  that  father  the  follo-v^ing  well-kno^\Ti 
passage  :  "  He  came  to  redeem  ail  by  hunself,  all  who  through 
him  are  regenerated  to  God,  infants,  Uttle  children,  boys, 
young  men  and  old.  Hence  he  passed  through  every  age, 
and  for  the  infants  he  became  an  infant,  sanctifying  the  in- 
fants— among  the  little  childi-en  he  became  a  little  child." ' 
'  Church  History,  vol.  i.  p.  311. 


120  BUNSEN     ON     IBEK^US. 

This  is  now  confessed  to  be  tlie  only  shadow  of  reason  for 
supposing  that  infant  baptism  was  ever  known  until  a  period 
much  later  than  the  year  200,  certainly.  But  here,  all  turns 
upon  the  meanmg  of  the  phrase  "  regenerated  to  God"  in 
the  above.  If  it  means  "  baptize,"  then  infant  baptism  was 
practiced  in  the  year  a.d.  180  ;  if  not,  all  proof  of  it  at  this 
period  falls  to  the  groimd.  It  is  not  the  duty  of  the  author 
to  offer  an  opinion  either  way,  but  simply  to  record  those 
of  others.  But  there  is  certainly  no  proof  that  the  custom 
had  then  originated,  especially  as  we  have  not  the  original, 
but  only  a  Latin  translation  of  later  date.  Dr.  Sears  and 
Dr.  Chase  have  endeavored  to  show  that  Irenseus  "  gener- 
ally employs  the  word  'regeneration'  to  designate  the 
general  work  of  Christ  in  redeeming  the  human  race,"  and 
hence  that  there  is  here  no  ground  for  believing  that  in  his 
time  infant  baptism  had  been  introduced.'  But  as  both  of 
these  are  Baptists,  it  would  be  contrary  to  the  object  of 
this  volume  to  quote  their  arguments.  Dr.  Sears,  however, 
refers  to  Baumgarten — Crusius,  "Winer,  Rossler,  and  Mun- 
scher,  all  German  authorities  of  high  rank,  and  who,  though 
not  Baptists,  deny  that  any  thing  m  Irenseus  proves  the 
existence  of  infant  baptism.  Dr.  Krabbe  declares  that  this 
passage  "  will  hardly  bear  ciiticisra,"  and  Dr.  Bunsen  is 
decidedly  of  this  opmion. 

If  this  be  so,  we  have  no  allusion  to  the  baptism  of  infants, 
at  any  rate  until  after  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  of 
the  Christian  era.  Let  any  one  think  of  the  changes  two 
hundred  yeai'S  have  wrought  m  the  customs  and  opinions 
of  Christians  in  New  England,  and  then  say  if  two  thou- 
sand years  hence,  because  some  antiquarian  should  read  in 

*  See  Christian  Review,  vol.  iii.  p.  206.  Chase's  Design  of  Baptism, 
pp.  67-85 


TERTULLIAX BUXSEX.  121 

a  work  of  this  day,  of  churches  fitted  up  with  gas  and  bap- 
tistries, organs,  and  choirs,  that  therefore  he  would  justly 
infer  that  choirs,  organs,  gas,  and  baptism  by  immersion, 
were  all  known  and  approved  by  the  Pilgrim  Fathers. 

We  now  come  down  to  Tertullian,  a.d.  200,  who  strongly 
protests  against  the  baptism  of  young  persons.  But  it  has 
generally  been  taken  for  granted  by  Pedobaptists,  that  he 
was  arguing  against  infant  baptism  in  the  strict  sense  of 
the  word,  and  hence  they  have  urged  that  he  must  have 
been  well  acquainted  with  the  system,  that  this  opinion  was 
but  that  of  an  mdividual,  while  his  opposition  j^roves  the 
prevalence  of  the  custom.  Neander,  however  remarks  on 
his  testimony :  "  Tertullian  appears  as  a  zealous  opponent 
of  infant  baptism,  a  proof  that  the  practice  had  not  as  yet 
come  to  be  regarded  as  an  apostolical  institution,  for  other- 
wise he  would  hardly  have  ventured  to  express  himself  so 
strongly  against  it.  *  *  *  jjg  says,  ''Let  them  first 
learn  to  feel  their  need  of  salvation^  so  it  may  appear  that 
we  have  given  to  those  that  wanted?  Tertullian  evidently 
means,"  contmues  Neander,  "  that  children  should  be  led  to 
Christ  by  instructing  them  in  Christianity,  but  that  they 
should  not  receive  baptism  until  after  having  been  sufficiently 
instructed,  they  are  led  from  personal  conviction,  and  by 
their  o^w\  free  choice  to  seek  for  it  with  the  sincere  longing 
of  the  heart." ' 

But  Bunsen  shows  that  Tertullian  was  not  arguing  against 
infant  baptism  at  all,  then  unknown,  but  of  "little  growing 
children  from  six  to  ten  years  old,"  who  could  "  go  do'wn 
with  the  other  catechumens  hito  the  baptismal  bath,  but 
were  not  yet  in  a  state  to  make  the  proper  responses."  The 
custom  was  commg  into  fashion,  but  Tertullian  "  rejects"  it, 

'  Church  History,  vol.  i.  p.  312. 
6 


122  ORIGEN. 

quoting  the  well-known  passage/  as  follows :  "  For  it  is  de- 
sLi-able  to  postj^one  bajitism  according  to  the  position  and 
disposition  of  each  individual,  as  well  as  in  reference  to  his 
age,  but  especially  so  in  the  case  of  children.  Where  is 
the  necessity  for  placing  the  sponsors  in  jeopardy,  who  may 
l)e  prevented  by  death  from  performing  theu*  promises,  or 
may  be  deceived  by  the  breaking  out  of  an  evil  disposition. 
It  is  true  that  our  Lord  said, "  Hmder  them  not  from  coming 
unto  me,"  but  they  may  do  so  when  they  have  arrived  at 
the  age  of  puberty,  they  may  do  so  when  they  have  begun 
to  learn,  and  have  learned  to  whom  they  are  going.  Why 
should  they  at  that  mnocent  age  hasten  to  have  their  sins 
forgiven  them  ?  Ought  we  to  act  with  less  circmnspection 
than  in  worldly  matters,  and  allow  those  who  are  not  in- 
trusted with  earthly  property  to  be  intrusted  with  heavenly? 
Whoever  attaches  to  baptism  the  importance  it  deserves, 
will  be  afi-aid  rather  of  being  too  hasty  than  too  procrasti- 
nating. True  faith  is  sure  of  salvation."  This,  continues 
Bunsen,  "  is  the  way  m  which  TertulUan  treats  the  subject 
of  baptism  of  groAving  children.  What  would  he  have  said 
to  the  application  of  Christ's  words  to  the  case  of  infants  ?"  * 

There  is  no  proof,  then,  of  a  smgle  case  of  infant  baj)tLsm 
up  to  the  close  of  the  second  century. 

Origen,  a.d.  230-250,  si^eaks  indeed  of  an  apostolical  tra- 
dition to  give  baptism  even  to  little  children  [parvulis],  but 
Xeander  justly  remarks  in  regard  to  this  declaration,  that 
it  is  "  an  expression  wliich  can  not  have  much  weight  in  this 
age,  when  the  inclination  was  so  strong  to  trace  every  msti- 
tution  which  was  considered  of  special  hnportance,  to  the 
Apostles,  and  when  so  many  walls  of  separation,  lundering 
the  freedom  of  prospect,  had  already  been  set  np  between 
'  De  Baptismo,  c.  18.  2  Hippolylus,  vol.  iii.  p.  194. 


BUNSEN    ON     ORIGEN.  123 

this  and  the  apostoUc  age."  The  same  author  also  shows 
that  "m  Origen's  thne,  too,  difficulties  were  frequently 
urged  against  infant  baptism,  similar  to  those  thrown  out 
by  Tertullian,"  and  that  we  are  not  to  infer  fi-om  any  single 
expressions  of  this  khid,  that  it  was  ever  in  customary  use, 
but  to  remember  that  long  after  infant  baptism  "  was  ac- 
knowledged in  theory,  it  was  still  very  far  from  being 
miiformly  recognized  m  practice."  ^ 

But  Bunsen  fully  explains  the  cause  of  this  reference  to 
apostolical  tradition,  showing  that  it  simply  alludes  to  the 
verse  "  Suffer  the  little  children  [parvuli]  to  come  unto  me," 
and  from  the  passage  before  quoted,  that  in  both  of  these 
cases,  the  reference  is  to  "  little  groioing  children  from  six 
to  ten  years  olcl.^^^ 

"  TertuUian's  opposition  is  to  the  baptism  of  young  grow- 
ing children  ;  he  does  not  say  one  %oord  about  nexo-horn  in- 
fants.  Neither  does  Origen^  when  his  expressions  are  ac- 
curately weighed.     Cyprian,  and  some  other  African  bishops, 

*  Vol.  i.  p.  314. 

'  "  This,  then,  is  also  the  true  interpretation  of  this  and  of  the  other  two 
passages  in  Origen  where  the  same  word  occurs.  A  comparison  with 
what  appears  to  have  been  considered  apostolical  tradition  before  the 
time  of  Origen,  slwws  that  no  other  interpretation  is  admissable.  The 
Text  Book  speaks  of  those  wJio  go  down  with  the  other  catechumens  into  the 
baptismal  bath,  hut  are  not  yet  in  a  state  to  make  the  proper  responses.  In 
that  case,  the  parents  are  bound  to  do  it  for  them.  This  is  undoubtedly 
the  "  apostolical  practice  to  which  Origen  refers,  for  it  was  to  the  Church 
of  Alexandria  that  he  particularly  belonged.  In  this  ordinance  the 
whole  arrangement  seems  to  be  an  exceptional  one,  and  so  it  is  in  Origen, 
for  he  says  the  "  Uttle  ones  also."  When  the  Church  instituted  Pedobap- 
tism  (in  the  sense  of  children  from  six  to  ten  years  of  age),  she  doubtless 
had  before  her  eyes  our  Lord's  afiectionate  words  referred  to  likewise  by 
Origen  on  the  occasion,  and  the  divines  of  the  sixteenth  century  soor 
found  themselves  obhged  to  revert  to  them."  Hippolytus,  vol.  iiL  pp.  192,39, 


124  AUGUSTINE. 

his  cotemporaries,  at  the  close  of  the  third  century,  were  the 
first  who  viewed  baptism  in  the  Hght  of  a  Avasliing  away  of 
the  universal  sinfulness  of  human  nature,  and  connected  this 
idea  ^■ith  the  ordinance  of  circumcision."  ^ 

By  Cyjirian  the  rightfuhiess  of  uifant  baptism  was  urged 
on  the  people,  upon  the  ground  of  circumcision,  which  ar- 
gument was  at  about  this  time  first  introduced.  But  these 
views  were  then  confined  to  the  clergy  of  Xorth  Africa, 
where  infant  baptism  origiaated  in  the  manner  which 
Neander  has  sho^vn.  Speaking  of  the  period  fi-om  Tertul- 
lian  to  Cji^rian,  he  says  : 

"  The  error  became  more  firmly  established,  that  without 
external  baptism  no  one  could  be  dehvered  from  that  in- 
herent guilt,  could  be  saved  from  the  everlasting  punishment 
that  threatened  him,  or  raised  to  eternal  life ;  and  when 
the  notion  of  a  magical  influence,  or  charm  connected  with 
the  sacraments,  continually  gained  ground,  the  theory  was 
finally  evolved  of  the  unconditional  necessity  of  infant  bap- 
tism. About  the  middle  of  the  third  century  this  theory 
was  already  generally  admitted  in  the  Xorth  Afi-ican  Church, 
The  only  question  that  remained  was  whether  the  child 
ought  to  be  baptized  unmediately  after  its  bu-th,  or  not  till 
eight  days  after,  as  m  the  case  of  the  rite  of  circumcision." ' 

And  yet  it  is  certain  that,  after  the  middle  of  the  fourth 
century,  the  baptism  of  Augustine,  the  son  of  the  pious 
Monica,  was  put  off  in  his  cliildhood,  under  circumstances 
that  Augusti  considers  to  show  that  liis  baptism,  A\dth  so 
little  preparation,  "  would  have  been  an  exception  to  the 
general  rule  on  this  subject."^ 

All  kinds  of  superstitions  and  ceremonies  rapidly  accumu- 

1  Hipolytus,  vol.  iii.  p.  195.  2  Church  History,  vol.  i.  p.  313. 

3  Coleman's  Christian  Antiquities,  chap.  2,  sec.  5. 


IXFANT    COMMUNION.  125 

lated  around  infant  baptism  in  proportion  as  tlie  custom 
gradually  extended ;  for  some  of  the  details  of  which  the 
curious  may  consult  "  Hart's  Ecclesiastical  Antiquities,"  and 
sunilar  works.  At  length,  in  Ireland,  the  land  of  saints, 
every  father  baptized  his  own  child,  as  soon  as  it  was  born, 
in  milk^  that  it  might  be  mild  in  disposition,  immersing  the 
whole  body,  except  always  the  right  arm,  "  that  he  might 
be  strong  in  war?''  From  the  time  of  Cyprian,  infant  com- 
munion spread  side  by  side  with  infant  baptism ;  and  we 
find  revolting  details  of  children  made  sick  by  the  bread 
and  wine  forced  into  their  mouths.  This  contmued  several 
centuries.  So  late  as  a.d.  957,  Elfric,  in  his  address  to  the 
priesthood  in  England,  says :  "  Ye  should  give  the  eucharist 
to  children  when  they  are  baptized,  and  let  them  be  broiight 
to  mass  that  they  may  receive  it  all  the  seven  days  that 
they  are  unwashed."  ^  Thus  is  the  origin  and  progress  of 
this  error  clearly  traceable  from  the  most  authentic  Pedo- 
baptist  sources. 

One  thmg  alone  remains  to  be  accoimted  for.  Whence, 
in  so  spu'itual  a  rehgion  as  Christianity,  came  this  super- 
stitious reverence  for  the  ordmances  of  religion  ?  Even 
this  it  is  not  difficult  to  trace.  Our  Saviour  msists  much 
upon  the  confession  of  Sim  before  men.  The  disj)osition 
to  do  this,  in  whatever  way  he  may  choose  to  make  kno^ATi 
his  \n\\,  even  at  the  cost  of  life,  he  makes  an  essential  part 
of  Christian  character.  But  in  practical  life  the  dispositimx 
to  confess  can  only  be  proved  by  the  act  of  confession. 
Plence  baptism,  as  the  pixbUc  avowal  of  Christ,  came  very 
early  to  be  considered  essential  to  being  "  a  complete''''  or 
'"'' perfect  Christian."  The  multitudes  who  delayed  it  on 
account  of  persecution  increased  this  tendency ;  while  the 
'  Hart's  Ecclesiastical  Records,  p.  188. 


126  BAPTISMAL    EEGENEEATIO^Sr. 

decision  of  character,  aud  consequent  peace  it  gave  to  those 
who  embraced  it,  j^robably  helped  to  foster  the  snperstition 
that  by  degrees  attached  to  the  mere  act  itself.  Soon, 
therefore,  the  former  sins  were  not  thought  to  be  generally 
washed  away  imtil  the  moment  of  baptism,  however  mani- 
fest the  iaith  iu  Christ  before.  Thus  it  came  to  be  esteemed 
essential  to  salvation,  not  indeed  without  faith,  but  when 
accompanied  by  it,  mystically  washing  away  all  sins  iij)  to 
the  moment  of  its  administration.  Hence,  too,  sins  after 
baptism  were  forgotten  by  the  Church  ^dth  difficulty.  Thus 
came  the  common  delay  of  multitudes  of  men  to  be  baptized 
tUl  just  before  death,  as  was  the  case  with  Constantme.  Then 
the  counteracting  zeal  of  the  Church  was  awakened.  Pious 
parents  first  encouraged  their  children  to  place  themselves 
as  catechumens  very  early  in  life,  and  then  the  parents 
placed  them  as  such  at  six  or  seven,  and  even  earlier.  At 
the  close  of  the  second,  and  all  through  the  third  and  fourth 
centuries,  there  were  increased  classes  of  children  catechu- 
mens. But  these  chUdi-en,  if  allowed  to  wait  untU  they 
grew  up,  would  still,  iu  superstitious  dread  of  sins  committed 
after  baptism,  defer  that  rite  until  a  deathbed,  as  the  ex- 
hortation of  Basil,  already  quoted  (a.d,  379)  shows. 

Hence  the  clergy,  m  a  mistaken  zeal  to  multiply  members, 
and  dreading  lest  a  rite,  to  which  so  much  unportance  was 
now  attached,  shoidd  be  delayed  for  a  precarious  deathbed, 
encroached  ^itli  their  baptism,  as  they  easily  could  through 
their  influence  over  the  flexible  niuids  of  the  children  cate- 
chumens, aided  by  the  bUnd  zeal  of  parental  piety,  earlier 
and  earlier  into  the  years  of  childhood.  From  boys  of  ten, 
who  might  sometuues  be  volunteers,  and  possibly  give  e\i- 
dences  of  smcere  piety,  they  advanced  to  take  in  those  of 
six  or  seven  responded  for  by  others,  though  able  to  descend 


CAUSE     OF     SUI'EKSTITION.  127 

unaided  into  the  water  ^viih  the  adult  catechumens.  Then 
those  of  three  or  four,  when  just  able  to  repeat  a  few  of  the 
sacred  words,  as  Gregory  Nazianzen  recommends,  were,  by 
a  fmther  corruption,  brought  by  baptism  into  the  fold  of 
the  Church.  From  this  very  circimistance  would  arise  the 
strongest  argument  for  going  a  step  ftirther.  For,  since  in 
these  very  yoimg  children  baptism  could  not  be  a  profession 
of  personal  faith,  it  could  only  lead  the  masses  to  sujipose 
that  it  acted  as  a  charm,  and  that  the  child  was  made  moi-e 
safe  in  case  of  death,  a  view  carefully  cherished  by  the 
clergy.  Thus  arose  the  belief  that  all,  even  infants,  dy- 
ing without  baptism,  would  be  lost;  and  hence  followed 
finally  the  baptism  of  babes  of  eight  days  old,  and  even 
those  of  a  day.  The  first  Tcnoxmi  instance  of  this  last  is 
A.D,  252,  in  North  Africa,  but  it  was  by  "  slow  degrees 
only,  and  with  much  difficulty,  that  all  this  entered  into 
the  Church  life,"  mitil  after  the  year  400,  as  Neander 
has  shoAVTi.  Down  to  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century, 
many,  hke  Basil,  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Chrysostom,  and 
Augustine,  whose  parentage  would  have  rendered  infant 
baptism  certam  had  it  been  usual,  were  not  baptized  tUl 
they  became  adults,  even  where  dedicated  to  God  most 
solemnly  by  parental  piety  in  then-  infancy,  "  like  Samuel." 
The  concessions  of  such  authorities  as  Augusti,  Neander, 
Bunsen,  and  a  host  of  others,  ftilly  sustam  this  view  of  the 
origui  of  uifant  baptism  and  its  efficacy. 

To  most  Christians,  indeed,  the  chief  difficulty  will  be  to  im- 
derstand  how  those  who  concede  so  much  concede  no  more ; 
how  they  can  give  up  the  Divine  authority  of  infant  bap- 
tism and  yet  retain  the  practice.  After  making  all  allow- 
ance for  early  associations  and  the  difficulty  and  dread  of 
cutting  the  Church  loose  from  a  system  tune-honored  and 


128         DECREASE  OF  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

remote,  this  must  still  be  considered  a  humiliating  fact. 
The  masses  of  those  who  contijiue  to  practice  it,  do  so  be- 
cause they  regard  it  as  most  imquestionably  a  Divine  insti- 
tution. They  draw  mferences  from  it  of  the  most  objec- 
tionable theological  character,  because  they  so  esteem  it. 
Surely  those  who  know  better,  and  who  perceive  these 
dangers,  should  not  content  themseh'es  with  protesting 
against  the  inferences,  but  should  abandon  Avhat  they  own 
to  be  the  unscriptural  practice,  from  Avhich  these  are  so  nat- 
urally drawn. 

§  V.    Decrease  op  Infant  Baptism. 

It  only  remams  that  we  now  trace  the  progress,  during 
the  last  hundred  years,  of  Anti-Pedobaptist  views  among 
the  masses  of  the  Christian  people — among  those,  in  fact, 
who,  guided  chiefly  by  the  Xew  Testament  and  conscience, 
have,  after  great  conflict  with  early  prejudices,  adopted  the 
baptism  of  beUevers  as  alone  scriptural,  or  at  least  reUn- 
quished  that  of  infants  as  erroneous  and  injurious. 

In  Prussia,  where  the  Baptists  have  suifered  much  perse- 
cution, it  has  been  j^roposed  recently,  by  many  of  the  clergy, 
to  do  away  with  the  requirement  of  infant  bajitism  to  inem- 
bersliip  in  the  National  Church.  There  are  now  in  Ger- 
many more  than  five  thousand  Baptist  members,  with  about 
four  hundred  and  fifty  preaching  stations,  and  about  sixty 
preachers  to  supply  them,  under  the  care  of  the  American 
Baptist  Missionary  Union.  About  seven  hundred  were 
baptized  in  1854.  In  addition  to  this  are  the  Mennonites, 
and  others  known  in  history. 

In  England  the  increase  of  the  Baptist  denomination, 
though  regular  and  satisfactory,  has  presented  no  very  re- 
markable national  results  of  late  years  at  home.     But  the 


INCREASE     OF     BAPTISTS.  129 

success  of  their  missions  abroad,  together  witli  their  zeal  in 
cii'culating  translations  of  the  sacred  Scriptures,  have  given 
a  degree  of  currency  and  power  to  Baptist  sentiments, 
throughout  India,  which  it  is  not  easy  to  estimate,  but  far 
beyond  what  now  appears  from  the  munbers  baptized.  In 
the  West  Indies  are  some  of  the  largest  Baptist  Churches 
in  the  whole  world.  In  Scotland,  though  mcreasmg,  the 
Baptists  are  few,  so  few,  indeed,  that  the  organ  of  the  Free 
Church  has  not  feared  publicly  to  admit  the  unsciTi"»tural 
character  of  uifant  baj)tism,  to  the  extent  that  we  have  seen. 
But  it  is  in  this  country,  where  religion  is  most  free,  that 
the  change  has  been  the  most  steady  and  decisive.  Ever 
since  1790,  a  tide  of  emigration  has  been  coming  in  from 
Europe:  very  few,  comparatively,  have  been  Baptists. 
Roman  Catholics,  Episcopalians,  Presbyterians,  and  Metho- 
dists, have  all  received  greater  accessions  in  this  way.  Had 
the  Baptists  kept  up  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of  popu- 
lation, it  might  have  seemed  as  much  as  could  have  been 
expected.     But  there  were  in  the  United  States — 

In  1792,  about  1  Baptist  communicant  to  every  56  inhabitants. 
In  1812,      "      1            "            "            «'             38  " 

In  1832,      "      1  "  "  "  33  " 

In  1854,      "      1  "  "  "  80  " 

In  addition  to  this,  there  are  many  Free^vill  Baptists,  Men- 
nonites,  and  Campbellites,  making  the  proportion  of  1  com- 
municant to  every  22  of  the  whole  population  belonging  to 
churches  which  reject  infant  baptism.  They  have  also 
ministers  and  accommodations  for  upward  of  3,500,000,  out 
of  about  14,000,000,  the  Avhole  Church  accommodation  of 
the  United  States ;  or  more  than  one  quarter  of  the  xchole. 
It  is  not,  however,  from  statistics  of  this  kind  that  a  full 
6* 


130  METHODISTS. 

idea  of  the  j^rogress  of  Baptist  principles  is  to  be  gathered. 
"We  all  know  that  infant  baptism  has  been  greatly  falling 
into  disuse  among  all  evangelical  denominations.  Perhaps 
this  decline  has  been  the  greatest  among  the  Methodists. 
But  they  appear  to  preserve  no  statistics  of  then-  baptisms 
as  a  denomination,  none  certainly  in  their  general  annual 
reports :  a  fact  which  in  itself  shows  its  uselessness  in  their 
sight,  and  incongruity  vdth.  their  evangehcal  principles.' 
Occupied  intently  with  the  one  great  truth  of  regeneration 
by  the  Spirit,  and  not  originally  considering  themselves  a 
Church,  but  only  a  voluntary  Society  in  a  Church,  the  prin- 
ciple of  their  foimdation  has  had  a  stronger  hold  ujjon  them 
than  even  the  teachings  of  their  founder.  Hence  they  now 
appear  to  welcome  those  who  beheve  in  mfant  baptism,  or 
baptism  only  on  a  profession  of  faith.  Their  Book  of  Dis- 
ciplme,  it  is  true,  would  bind  them  to  receive  none  who  do 
not  "  promise  to  observe  and  keep  the  rules  of  the  Church,'» 
of  which  infant  baptism  is  one.  But,  practically,  none  are 
refused  admission  simply  for  neglectmg  this  rite.  Among 
Ei^iscopalians,  on  the  other  hand,  their  strongly  ritual  ten- 
dencies at  the  i:>resent  day  render  the  number  of  their  in- 
fants baptized  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  actual  com- 
municants. 

1  It  is  not  a  hundred  years  ago  since  John  "Wesley,  defending  infant 
sprinkling,  wrote :  "  By  baptism  we  enter  into  covenant  wdth  God  into 
that  everlasting  covenant  which  he  hath  commanded  forever,  *  *  * 
are  admitted  into  the  Church,  and  consequently  made  members  of  Christ 
as  its  Head.  *  *  *  ^^e  who  were  by  nature  children  of  wrath  are 
made  children  of  God ;  *  *  *  and  if  children  then  heirs  with  God, 
and  joint  heirs  with  Christ."  (Wesley's  Miscellaneous  "Works,  vol.  iL  pp. 
157,  8.)  None  of  our  Methodist  brethren  would  use  such  language  now. 
The  drawings  of  a  higher  and  more  spiritual  regeneration  have  silently 
absorbed  their  interest  from  this  rite. 


CONGKEGATIONALISTS.  131 

They  baptize  the  mfaiits  of  the  whole  congregation,  but 
even  for  this  the  proportion  is  very  large,  being  about  forty 
thousand  reported  to  the  last  General  Convention  where 
their  whole  Church  accommodation  in  the  United  States  is 
but  six  hundred  and  forty-four  thousand  five  hundred  and 
ninety-eight,  being  just  one  infant  baptized  for  every  sixteen 
persons,  that  their  Churches  wUl  seat.  The  Episcopahans, 
however,  are  but  a  small  denomination,  confined  chiefly  to 
cities,  and  less  fairly  represented  by  the  numbers  then-  edi- 
fices will  seat  than  any  others  except,  perhaps,  the  Roman 
CathoUcs. 

Among  the  Congregationalists,  whUe  theu'  last  "Year 
Book"  is  a  most  valuable  document,  and  shows  clearly  their 
prosperity  in  many  points  of  view,  it  gives  no  statistics  of 
infant  baptism,  but  in  place  of  them  the  followmg  resolution : 

"  Voted,  That  a  committee  of  three  be  a^jpointed  to  as- 
certain the  existing  facts  m  reference  to  the  baptism  of  in- 
fants in  our  churches,  to  mquu-e  after  the  causes  of  the 
neglect  of  infant  baptism,  and  to  present  a  report  at  the 
next  meeting  of  the  body." 

More  significant,  however,  if  mdeed  there  is  not  some 
omission  of  the  printer,  is  a  confession  of  Faith  of  the  Con- 
gregational Association  of  Minnesota,  pubhshed  at  i)age  264, 
of  this  work,  the  thirteenth  article,  reading  as  follows : 

"Art.  13.  We  beheve  that  the  sacraments  of  the  New 
Testament  are  baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper,  that  believers 
of  regular  Church  standing  only  can  consistently  partake 
of  the  Lord's  supper,  and  that  visible  heUevers  be  admitted 
to  the  ordinance  of  baptism.'''' 

Nor  is  there  a  word  ui  favor  of  infant  baptism.  In  a  re- 
cent number  of  the  "  Journal  of  Commerce,"  the  Boston 
coi'respondent  chronicles  it  as  quite  a  marked  event  in  that 


132  PKCUEASK     OF     INFANT     BAPTISM. 

city,  that  "  three  inflmts  Averc  baptized"  on  the  previous 
Sabbatli,  and  adds : 

"In  our  Congregational  Clnirclies  we  fear  that  there  is 
considerable  intliiFerence  and  neglect  in  reference  to  infant 
l)ni)tisni.  In  one  of  our  oldest  churches  in  this  State  there 
had  not  been,  a  few  years  since,  an  instance  of  iiil'aiit  liap- 
tisni  ibr  the  seven  preceding  years.  Last  yeai'  there  were 
seventy  Congregational  Churches  in  New  Hampshire  tha 
re])orted  no  infant  baptism.  This  year  ninety-six  churches, 
or  about  one  lialf  in  the  State,  repoi-t  none.  If  tliis  indif- 
ference continues  the  ordinance  will  become  extinct  in  the 
Congregation.'il  ('iuirches." 

We  have  heard  it  nunored  that  in  a  church  near  New 
York  upward  of  fifty  have  '•'•joined  imder  lorUten  jyrotesV 
against  that  rite.  The  ibllowing  more  cautiously  worded 
acknowledgment  of  the  same  facts  is  made  in  an  editoriiil 
Avhich  i-ccently  a])peared  in  the  "  New  Yoj-k  Independent,"  a 
paper  that  boasts  of  twenty  thousand  subscribers,  and  is 
edited  by  several  leading  Congregational  ministers  : 

"  In  some  cases  it  is  affirmetl  that  this  neglect  has  spi'ead 
so  widely,  and  has  become  so  habitual  in  the  absence  of  a 
pastor,  or  through  his  tacit  consent  to  the  omission,  that 
the  instances  of  baptism  among  the  children  of  Church  mem- 
bers are  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule,  and  that  the  ef- 
forts to  revive  it  meet  with  coolness  or  opposition.  Tlie 
members  of  such  churches  doubt  the  propriety  of  adminis- 
terhig  the  ordinance  to  any  but  adults  and  in  their  own 
practice  conform  to  tlieir  convictions." 

The  reasons  assigned  for  this  neglect  arc,  if  possible  more 
significant  than  the  facts,  proving  how  essentialy  extraneous 
to  evangelical  religion  is  the  whole  system,* 

*  "  "Wo  can  not  particularly  blamo  this  when  we  reflect  how  slight  a 


PRKSHYTEJU  A  N8.  133 

The  Rcfovniod  Dutcli  Cliurcli,  acconlinuj  to  its  stiitislica 
in  1853,  baptized  one  inluut  to  every  lilleeu  aiul  one  lillh 
communicants. 

Perliaps  the  Presbyterians  liave  maintained  the  disc,ij)lino 
of  their  Cluucli  more  thoroughly  than  most  other  denomi- 
nations for  a  series  of  years,  and  preserved  their  records 
with  more  care.  But  unfortunately  there  are  no  statistics 
back  of  the  year  1827  tliat  will  enable  us  to  determino 
the  progress  or  decline  of  inlimt  ba])tism  among  them. 
In  that  year  the  number  of  infants  bajitized  was  already 
fewer  than  the  number  of  adults  received  on  a  profession 
of  religion,  being  in  the  following  proi)ortion  in  the  years 
stated.     In 

1827  there  wore  10  infants  sprinkled  to  12  added  on  examination. 

1828  "  10         "  "  15         "  " 

1829  "  12         "  "  U         "  " 

Indeed  if  we  take  all  their  baptisms,  both  of  adults  and  in- 
fimts  together,  for  the  three  years  above,  they  barely  exceed 
the  number  of  those  received  into  conun union,  being  only 
in  the  i)ro])ortion  of  forty-three  to  forty-two.' 

For  twenty  years  the  whole  number  of  their  ])aptism8 
of  adults  and  infants  put  togethei"  have  probably  but  lit- 
tle exceeded  the  number  of  tiicir  admissions  on  a  ])rofes- 

place  this  ordinance  lias  liad  In  either  the  doctrinal  expositions  or  the 
forms  of  religious  worship  common  among  our  churches.  Frequently  the 
baptized  chiltl  is  treated,  from  first  to  last,  by  his  parents,  by  ilio  minister, 
by  the  church  itself,  which  stand  around  him  at  his  baptism,  precisely  as 
if  no  such  rite  had  been  administered ;  while  the  service  itself,  as  we 
have  said,  is  sniflfed  out  of  sight  with  a  hasty  observance  that  as  nearly 
as  possible  intimates  contemj)t  for  it." — New  York  Tridependenl,  SiyHember, 
1854.  '  See  Appendix  A. 


134  DECREASE     OF     INFANT     BAPTISM:. 

sion  of  faith.  In  some  years  they  have  siuik  much  below. 
For  instance,  there  were  in 

1832  13  infants,  or  22  infants  and  adults,  to  34  added  on  examination. 

1833  14  "  21  "         "         "  23  "  "         " 

These  figm*es,  however,  are  less  to  he  rehed  on  because 
there  are  in  all  churches  seasons  of  revival  when  large  num- 
bers are  admitted,  and  seasons  of  declension  in  wliich  or- 
dinances may  be  maintained  with  regularity,  while  but  few 
make  a  profession  of  personal  piety.  But  the  general  re- 
sult shows  that  the  declme  of  infant  baptism  among  them 
must  be  very  great. 

A  fairer  way  of  examining  statistics  of  this  kind  is  to  take 
the  per  centage  of  infant  baptisms  to  the  whole  body  of  the 
communicants.  The  following  are  the  results  of  such  an 
estimate.    In 

1827  1  infant  was  baptized  to  every  13i  communicants. 

1828  1         "         "         "  "        13|  " 

1829  1         "         "         "  "        13i  " 

At  this  period,  therefore,  it  would  seem  that  the  average 
yearly  number  of  baptisms  was  about  one  to  thu-teen  and 
one  third.  But  in  1837,  ten  years  later,  and  just  before 
the  division  of  the  Church  into  its  two  present  organiza- 
tion of  old  and  new  school,  the  proportion  of  infant  bap- 
tisms to  the  number  of  the  communicants  was  one  to  eight- 
een and  four  fifths.     This  would  indicate  a  very  rapid  decline. 

The  old  school  Presbyterians  have  always  been  more  con- 
servative than  the  new,  especially  of  observances  like  tliis. 
Hence,  in  the  year  1839,  after  the  separation  was  complete, 
the  statistics  indicate  some  temporary  check  to  this  de- 
crease among  them,  and  there  was  one  infant  baptism  to 


PEESBYTERIANS.  135 

sixteen  and  three  fifths  commimicants.  But  in  1853,  it  had 
fallen,  in  the  old  school  branch  of  the  denomiaation  alone, 
to  one  in  eighteen  and  four  fifths,  and  in  1854  to  one  in 
eighteen  and  seven  tenths. 

The  statistics  of  the  new  school  branch  began  in  1838, 
and  exhibit  one  baptism  to  twenty-two  and  seven  tenths  of 
the  communicants.  This,  however,  had  fallen  in  1853,  the 
last  year  of  which  we  have  seen  statistics,  to  one  in  thirty- 
four  and  seven  tenths!  That  is,  where  in  1827  there  were 
ten  baptisms  to  every  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  communi- 
cants, in  1853  there  are  four  baptisms  to  every  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  communicants ! 

But  if  we  add,  as  we  ought  to  do  in  an  estimate  of  the 
whole  period,  the  tables  of  the  old  and  new  school  bodies 
together,  then  the  infant  baptisms  have  decreased  in  seven- 
teen years  from  one  in  thu-teen  and  one  fifth  to  one  in 
twenty-two  and  three  tenths. 

Or  to  make  the  matter  more  palpable,  supposmg  that  in 
1827  every  Presbyterian  infant  was  duly  baptized,  it  would 
foUow  that  now  one  hundred  and  fifty-two  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  ninety-two  of  then*  members  were  hvmg  in  ne- 
glect of  that  ceremony.  So  that  the  practice  has  decreased 
among  them  about  oiie  half  in  twenty  years. 

Let  us  next  multiply  the  number  of  communicants  by 
four,  and  it  ^viU  give  us  fairly  the  whole  amount  of  men, 
women,  and  children,  belongmg  to  strictly  Presbyterian 
families,  just  as  the  census  would  take  them,  and  coming 
withm  the  scope  of  infant  baptism  as  now  generally  admin- 
istered. This  would  give  a  population  of  one  million  four 
hundred  and  thii-ty  eight  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty 
in  1853. 

The  last  census  returns  give  one  birth  m  the  year  to 


136  DECREASE    OF    INFANT    BAPTISM 

every  thirty-three  inhabitants,  but  these  are  admitted  to  be 
quite  defective.  In  Boston,  indeed,  the  increase  has  been 
found  to  be  about  one  to  every  twenty-six.  In  England  and 
Wales  the  average  has  been  considered  abo^^t  one  birth  to 
every  thirty-one  mhabitants,  and  in  this  country  the  m- 
crease  is  larger.  But  accordmg  to  this  estimate  there 
were  forty-six  thousand  four  hundred  and  fourteen  Presby- 
terian children  born,  less  than  one  third  of  whom,  fifteen 
thousand  six  hmidred  and  seventy-six,  were  baptized.  But 
the  Prussian  returns  give  one  birth  to  every  twenty-six  inhab- 
itants. This  would  give  about  fifty-five  thousand  bb'ths,  of 
whom  about  forty  thousand  are  unbaptized.' 

And  further,  a  hundred  years  ago  it  was  not  only  the 
serious  Presbyterians  who  had  their  infants  sprinkled,  but 
as  now  in  Scotland  even  the  most  worldly.  Many  who 
rarely  set  foot  in  a  chu.rch  of  any  kind,  would  yet  bring 
their  children  forward. 

There  is  still  another  clearer  method  of  exhibiting  the 
decrease  of  infant  baptism.  By  the  late  census  the  whole 
church  accommodation  of  this  country  for  all  those  denom- 
inations who  baptize  infants,  is  ten  million  six  hundred  and 
fifly-eight  thousand  six  hundred  and  thirty-one,  of  which  the 

1  The  average  of  births  is  exceedingly  hard  to  estimate.  The  regis- 
tration of  them  in  England  and  "Wales  has  ever  been,  and  probably  now 
is,  below  the  truth.  There,  the  population  has  about  doubled  in  the  last 
fifty  years,  in  spite  of  war,  emigration,  and  deaths.  In  Prussia  there  were, 
according  to  an  account  before  me  in  1849,  six  hundred  and  ninety-one 
thousand  five  hundred  and  sixty-two  births  to  sixteen  million  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty-one  thousand  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven  population,  or 
one  birth  to  twenty-three  and  three  fifths.  The  statistical  reports  of  Prus- 
sia seem  to  me  the  most  reliable.  If  we  suppose  the  births  to  be  one  in 
twenty-six  in  Prussia,  the  estimated  average,  they  are  probably  not  less 
than  one  in  twenty-five  in  this  country. 


IN    TUB    UNITED     STATES.  137 

Presbyterians  have  two  million  seventy-nine  thousand  six 
hundred  and  nuiety.  If,  then,  they  baptized  in  1853  fifteen 
thousand  six  hundred  and  seventy-six,  and  all  other  Pedobap- 
tist  denominations  m  the  same  proportion,  it  would  give,  as 
the  total  number  of  infants  sprinkled  in  the  United  States  in 
that  year,  about  eighty  thousand.  Supposing  the  popula- 
tion that  year  to  have  been  twenty-live  millions,  there 
would  have  been,  according  to  the  English  tables,  eight 
hundred  thousand  children  born  to  eighty  thousand  baj)tized. 
But  by  the  Prussian  tables,  upward  of  nuie  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  children  were  born,  that  is,  onore  than  twelve 
infants  born  to  one  haptized,  by  all  deno'tninations^  the 
whole  country  through? 

In  one  sentence,  then,  uifant  baptism  is  now  completely 
the  exception  where  it  used  to  be  the  rule.  If  the  Presbyte- 
rian returns  furnish  a  fair  average,  out  of  twelve  infants 
born,  eleven  go  unbaptized.  A  hmidred  years  ago  the  pro- 
portions were  nearer  the  reverse.     [Appendix  B.] 


CHAPTEE   V. 

IMMERSION   ALWAYS   THE  BAPTISM    OF  THE   NEW  TESTAMENT. 

In  the  year  1841  Bishop  Smith  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
in  Kentucky  was  pubUcly  declared  by  his  o^vn  brethren  to 
be  the  author  of  a  letter  in  the  "  Church  Record,"  saying 

'  The  Roman  Catholics,  as  well  as  the  Episcopalians,  baptize  a  larger 
proportion  of  their  infants  than  the  Presbyterians.  But  the  first  named 
are  only  to  the  Methodists  as  six  to  forty-three,  estimated  by  church  ac- 
commodations ;  and  these  last  as  well  as  the  Congregationalists  are  far 
more  lax  in  this  matter  than  the  Presbyterians. 


138  BISHOP     SMITH, 

that  he  and  many  of  his  -western  brethren  ^vere  "  con- 
strained to  admit  immersion  to  have  been  semper^  uhique^ 
et  ah  oninihus^''''  and  as  "  being  exceedingly  galled  by  the 
argum<intum  ad  homineni — M  you  believe  in  immersion, 
■why  do  yon  not  practice  it ;  or,  at  least,  why  do  you  not 
yourself  submit  to  it  ?"  To  this  last  question,  wMch  he 
confesses  to  have  been  "  often  posed  with,"  he  "  knows  of 
no  ansicer''''  but  the  want  of  a  succession  of  immersed  ad- 
ministrators in  the  Episcopal  Chm'ch.  "  How  enviable,"  he 
contmues,  "  is  the  position  of  the  Greek  and  Asiatic 
Churches  !  And  how  deeply  to  be  deplored  the  condition 
to  which  Protestantism  is  reduced  by  this  [sprinkhng] 
among  the  many  other  departures  from  the  Catholic 
Church,  of  the  great  Roman  schism  !" 

Afterwards,  in  a  letter  published  by  his  "leave,  and 
under  his  own  proper  signature,"  he  says  :  "  I  do  fuUy  and 
imhesitatingly  beUeve  that  no  mstance  either  of  adult  or 
infant  baptism  occurred  during  the  first  thi-ee  centm-ies  ex- 
cept by  immersion,  save  only  in  the  few  cases  of  clmic  bap- 
tism, and  that  to  this  jjractice  all  the  incidental  notices  of 
Holy  Scripture  best  conform."  He  believes  that  "  God  in 
his  -wise  providence  has  permitted  the  rise  of  the  various 
sects  of  Bajitists  for  the  purpose  of  idtunately  restoriug  the 
primitive  mode  of  baptism." 

Dr.  Anthon  of  Columbia  College  declares  that  "  the 
primary  meanmg  of  the  word  ^utitI'^o)  is  to  dq:>,  or  immei^se, 
and  its  secondary  meanings,  if  ever  it  had  any,  all  refer  in 
some  way  or  other  to  the  same  leading  idea.  jSprinkling, 
etc.,  are  entirely  out  of  the  question." 

If  from  the  Episcopal  Church  we  turn  to  the  Presbyte- 
rian, we  can  not  forget  that  Dr.  Campbell  declared,  about 
fifty  years  ago,  that  the  Avord  8unjl';Eiv^  both  in  sacred  au- 


BAPTISM    IMMERSIOIf.  139 

thors  and  in  classical,  signifies  to  dip^  to  plimge^  to  im- 
merse, and  that  "  it  is  always  construed  suitably  to  this 
meaning." 

We  are  not  aware  of  a  single  writer  of  Church  History 
who  has  expressed  a  doubt  on  this  point.  Xeander  says 
that,  "In  respect  to  the  form  of  baptism,  it  was  in  conform- 
ity with  the  original  institxition,  and  the  original  unport 
of  the  symbol,  performed  by  immersion  as  a  sign  of  entire 
baptism  into  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  of  being  entirely  pene- 
trated by  the  same." '  Mosheim  declares  that  in  the  first 
century  "  baptism  was  admmistered  in  convenient  places, 
without  the  public  assemblies,  and  by  innuersmg  the  candi- 
date wholly  in  water."  "^ 

Among  the  Germans,  where  the  controversy  has  not 
been  much  agitated,  this  concession  is  most  freely  made. 
Winer,  Tholuch,  Hhan,  Augusti,  and  many  others,  say,  as 
Jaeobi  says,'  "  the  whole  body  was  immersed  in  water," 

To  this  it  must  be  added  that  the  Greek  Church  does 
now,  and  always  has,  reqiiired  immersion,  holding  that 
nothing  else  can  be  baptism.     As  Professor  Stuart  says  : 

"  The  mode  of  baptism  by  hnmersion  the  Oriental 
Church  has  always  continued  to  preserve,  even  down  to 
the  present  time.  *  *  They  maintam  that  ^umllfa  can 
mean  nothing  hut  imm^erge?'''^ 

Even  the  Roman  Catholics  frequently  urge  it  as  a  deci- 
sive argument  against  all  Pedobaptist  Protestants,  that  they 
do  not  immerse  ;  arguing  that  sprinldmg  is  only  a  substi- 
tute introduced  on  the  authority  of  the  Church,  and  that 
originally  baptism  was  by  immersion  alone.  In  fact,  the 
vast  preponderance  of  e%'idence  of  all  Christians,  even  of 

*  History,  voL  i.  p.  310.  ^  Eccl.  History,  cent.  1.  part  ii.  chap.  4. 

*  Kitto's  Cyc.  Art.  Baptism.        *  Bib.  Repos.  April,  1833,  p.  360. 


140  PEOFESSOE    STUAET. 

those  practicing  iniant  baptism,  is  most  decisively  in  favor 
of  all  the  baptisms  of  Scripture  having  been  by  immersion. 
And  Professor  Stuart,  as  we  shall  see,  admits  that  there  is 
not  a  single  case  in  the  New  Testament  irreconcilable  with 
this  supposition.  Even  when  endeavormg  to  show  the 
mode  of  baptism  unimportant,  his  arguments  are  chiefly 
derived  from  the  spiritual  nature  of  Christianity  rendering 
aU  forms  non-essential,  thus  curiously  coming  round  to  the 
chief  error  of  Popery,  i.  e.,  taking  for  granted  that  baptism 
and  salvation  are  so  far  connected  that  what  is  essential  to 
the  one  is  essential  to  the  other ! 

Nearly  aU  the  rest  of  his  argument  is  based,  in  truth,  as 
we  shall  see,  on  this  fallacy,  that  if  a  Greek  word  ever  has 
more  senses  belonging  to  it  than  its  one  most  usual  mean- 
ing, it  can  never  be  supposed,  without  demonstrative  proof, 
to  be  used  in  less  than  the  whole  complement  of  its  possible 
significations  at  the  same  time. 

Thus  far  have  Baptist  principles  been  fuUy  conceded  by 
the  most  enlightened  of  other  denominations,  in  theory  at 
least.  "Were  each  of  these  admissions  but  universally  acted 
xipon — were  baptism  delayed  imtU  the  only  proper  time  of 
fuU  commimion,  i.  e.,  that  of  personal  faith,  and  were  im- 
mersion alone  practiced,  every  division  might  be  done 
away,  and  all  Christians  have  now,  as  at  fii'st,  "  one  Lord, 
one  faith,  and  one  baptism." 


BOOK   II. 

CONTROVERTED    PRINCIPLES. 

We  turn  now  to  consider  those  principles  which  form 
the  chief  points  of  controversy  remaining  between  Baptists 
and  other  denominations. 

1.  The  Command  to  Baj^tize  a  Command  to  Immerse. 

2.  The  Importance  of  Believer's  Baptism. 

3.  Infant  Baptism  Injurious  as  well  as  Unscriptural. 

4.  Mixed  Commmiion  Unwise  and  Injurious. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE  COMMAISTD   TO   BAPTIZE   A   COAniAXD  TO   IMiCEESE. 

§  I.    Ordinary  use  of  iSa-rrTi^u. 

To  persons  not  versed  in  this  controversy,  the  subject  of 
the  present  chapter  and  that  of  the  foregoing  will  appear 
so  nearly  alike,  that  none,  it  might  be  almost  presumed, 
who  would  admit  what  has  been  shown  to  be  conceded  in 
the  former,  would  question  what  we  are  still  obliged  to  call 
controverted  ground.     Yet  such  a  supposition  would  be 


142  THE    COMMAND    TO     BAPTIZE 

erroneous.  Many  excellent  Christians,  freely  admitting 
that  primitive  baptism  was  performed  only  by  immersion, 
yet  suppose  that  the  command  to  be  baptized  may  now  be 
vaHdly  fulfilled  in  other  ways.  Many  more  who  admit  the 
exceptions  to  immersion,  if  any,,  to  have  been  extremely 
rare  and  guarded,  yet  take  the  same  ground.  The  word 
^ttTTT/^w,  they  say,  though  primarily  and  almost  always 
meaning  to  "  f??jt>,"  to  "*wimerse,"  or  to  '"'' plunge^''  has  in 
some  few  cases  other  significations,  less  specific  as  to  mode, 
and  fi'om  this  they  infer  that  the  coiimiand  of  Christian  bap- 
tism may  therefore  be  fulfilled  Avithout  immersion.  The 
object  of  the  present  chapter  "wdll  be  to  show  the  progress 
of  opinion  upon  this  subject,  and  how  far  the  discussions  of 
the  last  hundred  years  have  reduced  the  points  of  difiiculty 
and  tended  to  estabUsh  those  views  for  which  the  Baptists 
have  usually  contended.  It  will,  first  of  all,  be  necessary 
to  show  how  far  the  general  principles  and  laws  of  interpre- 
tation that  have  been  developed  by  the  Biblical  studies  of  such 
men  as  Professor  Stuart  and  others,  enable  us  to  limit  with 
precision  the  meaning  of  a  divine  conunand,  even  though  the 
principal  words  of  that  command  may  each  have  several 
distinct  senses.  After  this  is  done,  it  will  be  proper  to  in- 
qitire  if  it  has  been  proved,  during  the  last  hundred  years, 
that  ^amiXfii  ever  has  actually  in  Greek  literature  any  mean- 
ing which  does  not  necessarily  involve  the  idea  of  immer- 
sion. The  specific  instances  m  which  alone  scholars  like 
Professor  Stuart  and  Robinson  contend  that  it  is  not  in- 
volved in  the  literal  meanmg  of  the  word,  are  very  few. 
Apart  from  the  rite  of  Christian  baptism,  and  one  or  two 
that  will  prove  figurative  xises,  these  cases  amount  but  to 
about  seven  in  the  whole  compass  of  Greek  literature. 
iVbwe  of  these  belong  to  classic  Greek,  but  are  found  either 


A     COMMAND    TO     IMMEKSE.  143 

in  the  Bible  or  Apocry])ha.  They  can,  therefore,  with  a 
little  attention,  be  tolerably  well  estimated,  even  by  those 
not  acquainted  with  the  origmal.  Perhaps  the  sense  of  this 
term  -oill  thns  be  foimd  quite  as  specific  and  certam  as  the 
English  word  "  r?//)." 

If,  at  sea,  the  cai^tam  of  a  sloop-of-war  were  to  order  one 
of  the  hands  "  to  dip  a  bucket  overboard,"  would  any  one 
doubt  the  meanmg  of  the  word  "  dip  f "  But  if,  thereupon, 
the  sailor  merely  suspended  the  bucket  a  few  mmutes  out- 
side the  vessel,  where  the  waves  might  splash  and  wet  it 
with  theu'  spray,  and  then  were  gravely  to  assert  that  he 
had  obeyed  the  order,  and  dipped  the  bucket  as  he  was 
instructed,  would  the  captain  hesitate  to  assert  on  oath,  if 
necessary,  before  a  court-martial,  that  the  man  had  utterly 
neglected  to  obey  the  command  given  ? 

But  suppose  the  accused  were  to  plead,  m  justification, 
that  he  had  foimd  a  copy  of  Milton's  works  m  the  hbrary 
of  the  forecastle,  and  had  read  in  "  Comus"  a  passage  which 
fully  justified  his  construction  of  the  command,  as  follows : 

"  A  cold  shuddering  dew 
Dips  me  all  o'er." 

Suppose  he  should  urge  hence,  that  it  was  clear  the  word 
dip  m  the  order  given  was  quite  ambiguous,  and  might 
mean  merely  to  l)edew  or  to  sprmkle  ;  if  he  should  produce 
the  various  meanings  of  the  word,  given  in  Webster's  Dic- 
tionary, m  proof  of  the  ambiguity  of  the  command,  and 
particularly  his  fifth  signification,  i.  e.,  "  to  moisten,"  "  to 
wet,"  and  argue  thence  that  nothing  more  was  decided  by 
the  verb  used  than  that  liquid  was  to  be  applied  in  some 
way  to  the  bucket,  but  that  it  mattered  not  how  : — suppose 
he  were  even  to  argue  on  this  basis,  that  the  Avord  "  dip" 


144  DIP    AND    ^amlX,U). 

did  not  intimate  any  thing  as  to  mode,  but  merely  conveyed 
the  idea  of  "  moistening,"  or  of  "  pm-ification ;"  would  it 
not  be  instantly  replied  that  the  meaning  of  the  word  "  dip" 
must  be  detei-mined  by  its  common  usage,  and  the  general 
manner  of  speaking,  where  no  sj)ecial  reason  for  supposing 
an  exception  was  shown.  Would  it  not  be  urged  that  almost 
all  words  are  used  sometimes  in  different  senses,  but  by  a 
well-known  principle  of  language  and  of  common  sense, 
each  word,  although  it  should  possess  a  dozen  distinct 
meanings,  can  have  but  one  of  these  significations  at  the 
same  tune,  so  that  in  interpreting  a  command  we  are  not  at 
liberty  to  affix  to  each  word  all  of  its  possible  senses,  or  to 
]3ick  out  from  among  them  any  one  that  may  suit  our 
pleasure,  but  the  meaning  of  a  command  is  always  that 
signification  of  each  word  which  the  most  common  usage 
m  such  cases  shows  to  have  been  intended  by  the  speaker, 
exceptional  meanings  requii'ing  specific  proof  in  proportion 
to  their  rarity. 

Now  in  place  of  the  English  word  "  dip"  let  the  reader 
put  its  exact  equivalent  in  Greek,  paTii/^w,  and  he  will  have 
before  him  an  illustration  of  the  real  question  whether 
the  command  to  baptize  is  a  command  to  immerse,  as  it  has 
developed  itself,  especially  during  the  last  hundred  years, 
through  the  researches  of  such  critics  even  as  Professors 
Stuart  and  Robinson.  There  is  only  this  difference,  that 
there  has  not  been  produced  from  the  whole  compass  of 
Greek  literature,  a  single  instance  in  which  ^amltb)  is  used 
in  so  figurative  a  manner  as  our  English  word  "  dip,"  in  the 
instance  quoted  from  the  writings  of  Milton.'  Apart  from 
its  use  in  reference  to  the  rite  of  Christian  baptism,  we  shall 
find  that  the  meaning  of  the  word  ^anri'Qa  more  clearly  and 
'  See  p.  143. 


A.    PRINCIPLE     OP    IXTEEPRETATION.  145 

oniformly  involves  immersion  in  Greek,  according  to  Lid- 
dell  and  Scott's  Lexicon,  the  latest  and  most  approved 
standard,  than  "  dip"  does  in  EngUsh,  according  to  Webster, 

If  the  Sacred  Scriptures  had  been  originally  written  in 
English,  and  the  word  "  dip''''  had  been  placed  by  the  pen 
of  inspiration,  where  we  noAV  read  "  haptize^''  few  we  sup- 
pose would  esteem  the  meaning  at  all  doubtful,  even  though 
it  could  be  proved  that  the  word  was  sometimes  used  dif- 
ferently from  its  primary  signification. 

There  has  been  much  error  on  this  point.  The  real  ques- 
tion to  be  settled  is  not  whether,  throughout  the  whole 
range  of  Greek  literature,  any  cases  do  or  do  not  occur,  in 
which  the  term  ^anriL^M  is  used  in  any  other  sense  than 
"  immerse,''''  as  one  would  suppose  from  the  arguments  of 
most  of  our  Pedobaptist  brethren.  They  generally  content 
themselves  with  attempting  to  prove  that  ^amltfii  may 
sometimes  be  used  m  another  sense,  freely  conceding,  as  all 
who  know  any  thing  of  the  language  must,  that  the  prhnary 
and  com/mon  usage  of  the  term  is  precisely  what  Baptists 
contend.  This  is  the  first  and  most  important  point  of 
issue  now  remaming  between  Baptists  and  Pedobaptists, 
not  whether  the  word  ^anxi'Qji  ahcays  involves  immersion, 
but  whether  the  command  to  baptize  is  always  a  command 
to  immerse.     The  question  is  as  to  a  law  of  interpretation. 

Almost  every  word  has  several  significations,  but  the  in- 
terpreter of  Scripture  has  not  therefore  a  right  to  attach 
any  of  the  senses  he  pleases,  much  less  all  of  them,  but  he 
is  to  take  that  one  meaning,  in  each  case,  which  common 
usage  and  the  connection  show  to  have  been  ui  the  muid 
of  the  writer,  and  that  is  the  sense  of  every  command  of 
Scripture,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  the  other  possible  mean- 
ings, as  completely  as  though  they  never  existed. 

n 


146  PRIXCIPLE    OF     INTERPRETATION. 

In  Ernosti's  Principles  of  Interpretation,  as  translated  and 
enlarged  by  Professor  Stuart,  it  is  laid  down  "  that  the 
sense  of  a  word  can  not  be  diverse  or  multifarious  at  the 
saine  time,  and  in  the  same  passage  or  expression. 

"  All  men,  in  their  daily  conversation  and  wi-itings,  attach 
but  one  sense  to  a  word  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same 
passage,  unless  they  design  to  speak  in  enigmas.  Of  course 
it  would  be  in  opposition  to  the  imivei'sal  custom  of  lan- 
guage if  more  than  one  meaning  should  be  attached  to  any 
word  of  Scripture  in  such  a  case.  Yet  many  have  often 
done  this. 

"  Although  a  word  can  have  but  one  meanmg  at  the  same 
time  and  in  the  same  place,  usage  has  gradually  assigned 
many  meanings  to  the  same  word.  The  question,  then,  for 
an  interpreter,  is  simply  this  :  Wlaich  one  of  the  significa- 
tions that  a  word  has,  is  connected  mth  its  use  in  any  par- 
ticular instance." ' 

It  might  be  admitted,  therefore,  for  the  sake  of  argument, 
that  many  other  senses  may  belong  to  the  word  ^amli^w,  but 
the  question  then  would  be,  which  07ie  of  these  significa- 
tions is  that  which  our  Saviour  mtended  in  this  particular 
command  ? 

It  is  just  at  this  point  that  a  distinguished  Pedobaptist, 
whom  the  wi'iter  of  these  pages  vrW\  ever  feel  bound  to  re- 
vere and  esteem,  appears  to  him  to  have  fiUen  into  au  im- 
portant mistake.  Defining  the  question  at  issue,  Professor 
Pond  says,'^  "  Whatever  Baptists  ofier  to  show  that  immer- 
sion is  a  valid  mode,  or  the  most  proper  mode,  or  that  it 
was  frequently  practiced  in  ancient  tunes,  has  no  direct  bear- 
ing on  the  controversy,  and  no  tendency  to  bring  it  to  a 
close.     Let  them  prove  what  we  deny,  that  immersion  is 

'  Part  L  chap.  1,  sees.  17,  18.  '  Treatise  on  Baptism,  p  14. 


DR.    POND'S     MISTAKE.  147 

essential  to  baptism — so  essential  that  there  can  be  no  bap- 
tism without  it,  and  our  diiierences  on  the  subject  are  at  an 
end."  This  conies  just  after  representmg  the  Baptists  as 
asserting  that  "  the  meaning  of  the  word  [pamiQix)]  is  al- 
ways the  same,  and  it  always  signifies  to  dip.  It  never  has 
any  otlier  meaning."  Now  it  is  true  that  most  Baptists 
hold  what  he  here  represents,  in  regard  to  the  meaning  of 
the  original  word  for  baptize.  But  it  is  obvious  that  he  has 
confounded  two  things  that  might  differ  greatly,  i.  e.,  what 
is  essential  to  Christian  baptism,  and  what  is  always  essen- 
tial to  the  meaning  of  the  Greek  word  ^umilo).  Hence  he 
has  misconceived  the  point  at  issue  in  such  a  way  as  to 
give  himself  great  advantage.  The  question  just  now  cer- 
tainly is  not  whether  immersion  is  "  so  essential  to  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word  §amL'Cfa  that  there  can  be  no  baptism  with- 
out it"  but  whether  the  sense  of  the  command  is  such  that 
immersion  is  enjoined  in  Christian  baptism.  The  first  is  a 
speculative  question  of  Greek  philology — a  comparatively 
nice  and  minute  question — one  upon  which  ninety-nine  out 
of  a  hundred  Christians  can  form  but  little  positive  opin- 
ion ;  but  the  other  belongs  to  the  common  sense  meaning 
of  a  plain  command  intended  to  be  easily  understood  and 
clear  to  the  masses  of  Christians,  one  that  would  always  be 
thus  clear  but  for  the  learned  dust  that  has  been  thrown 
around  it. 

Our  blessed  Saviour  gave  his  disciples  instructions  to 
"  baptize''''  a  certain  class  of  persons.  The  word,  we  will 
suppose,  may  have  five  or  six  different  senses,  as  most  words 
have,  and  as  Webster  considers  "  dip"  to  have.  But  we 
want  just  now  to  find  that  one  sense  which  ^umi'Cfa  has  in 
this  command.  To  ascertain  this,  the  first  resort  is  obviously 
to  common  usage  ;  and,  unless  something  in  the  preposi- 


148  COMMON    USAGE     OF     WOEDS. 

tions,  idiom,  connection,  or  circumstances  decide  otliei'"nnse, 
this  and  this  alone  is  the  meaning  of  the  command. 

In  Professor  Stuart's  Ernesti  the  question  is  asked,  "  If 
the  same  word  has  many  significations,  how  can  the  mean- 
ing in  each  case  be  foimd  ?  1.  From  the  general  man- 
ner of  speaking,  i.  e.,  fi'om  common  usage.  2.  From  the 
proximate  words  or  context.  That  is,  the  usual  and  ob- 
vious  meaning  is  attached  to  the  word,  or  else  one  which 
the  context  rendei'S  necessary.  In  addition  to  the  aid 
drawn  fi-om  these  sources,  an  interpreter  may  sometimes 
obtain  assistance  from  the  scope  or  design  of  the  writer,  or 
from  history,  antiquities,  or  the  nature  of  the  subject."' 

If  a  house  is  "  to  let,"  and  a  foreigner  declares  the  mean- 
ing of  the  advertisement  not  clear,  because  Webster's 
Dictionary  teUs  him  that  "  let"  sometunes  means  to  "  hin- 
der,'''' will  it  not  reheve  his  difficulty  to  adhere  to  the  only 
common  sense  rule  of  construing  words,  i.  e.,  according  to 
ordinary  usage,  imttl  proof  of  another  is  shown. 

Whatever  else  may  be  questioned,  no  competent  person 
will  now  deny  that  the  primary  and  prevaihng  meaning  of 
this  term  in  ordinary  usage  was  precisely  equivalent  to  our 
English  words  to  "  dip,"  or  to  "  immerse."  If  ever  it  had 
any  other  senses,  they  were  either  merely  figurative,  or 
very  secondary  to  this  the  ordinary  usage,  and  they  ahnost 
always  involve  m  some  way  the  primary  idea. 

More  than  fifty  years  ago,  Professor  Campbell,  in  his 
"Notes  on  Matthew  iii.  11,"  had  conceded  in  the  fullest 
manner  that  the  ordinary  sense  of  ^uml^w  was  so  obviously 
inunerse,  that  he  said  he  should  have  preferred  to  adopt  it 
instead  of  baptize  throughout  the  New  Testament  but  for 
the  fact  that  the  other  term  had  been  so  long  in  use. 
'  Part  i,  chap.  L  sec.  19. 


LEXICONS.  149 

Since  that  time  the  most  important  Pedobaptist  authorities 
on  this  pomt  are  such  lexicons  as  those  of  Robinson,  or 
Liddell  and  Scott,  and  such  a  dissertation  as  that  of  Profes- 
sor^^tuart. 

As  to  the  prunary  meaning  of  ^anjit,(D  there  is  no  question. 
Professor  Stuart  even  says:  "The  original  etymological 
root  of  (?«:tt/^w,  ^dnTta,  as  also  the  nouns  and  adjectives  kin- 
dred with  them,  appears  plainly  to  be  the  monosyllable 
Bjn.  The  leading  and  origmal  meaning  of  the  monosyl- 
lable seems  to  have  been  dipping^  plunging^  immerging^ 
soaking,  or  drenching  in  some  liquid  substance."  ^ 

The  common  regular  usage  of  this  verb  in  classic  Greek 
is  fuUy  proved  by  all  these  authorities. 

JRobinson  gives  under  this  head  "  to  dip  in,  sink,  immerse, 
to  dip  in  a  vessel,  to  draw  water." 

Liddell  and  Scott  give  the  following  meanings  in  the  first 
edition  of  their  Lexicon :  "  To  dip  repeatedly,  dip  under, 
mid.  bathe,  hence  to  steep,  to  wet,  to  pour  upon,  drench,  to 
dip  a  vessel,  draw  water,  to  baptize."  In  the  next  edition, 
"  to  steep,  to  wet,  to  pour  vpo7i,  to  drench,''''  are  all  expunged." 

Professor  Stuart,  mdeed,  has  accurately  and  at  length 
gone  over  the  whole  ground,  and  considered  all  the  mean- 
ings of  §umltut  in  classic  Greek,  and  at  the  conclusion  he 
admits  that  there  is  no  proof  in  it  all  that  the  word  is  ever 
used  in  any  other  tlian  one  of  the  two  following  senses : 

"  1.  To  dip,  plunge,  immerse  any  thing  in  Uquid. 

"  2.  To  overwhelm  literally  or  figuratively."^ 

»  Biblical  Repos.  April,  1833,  p.  288.  2  See  p.  179. 

3  The  only  possible  exception  to  this,  in  Professor  Stuart's  view,  is  the 
following  passage  brought  forward  as  "  not  altogether  certain,"  but  prob- 
ably meaning  "  to  bathe,  by  the  application  of  liquid  to  the  surface." 
Dionysius,   of  Helicarnasus,    is  commenting  upon  Homer,    II.  xii.  333, 


160  PREDOMIXAJ^T     USAGE. 

In  other  words,  the  general  classic  usage  of  this  term  is,  if 
possible,  more  clear,  vmambiguous,  and  uniform  in  its  mean- 
ing than  our  English  word  to  "  <"7//:>." 

Xor  do  any  excejjtional  cases,  which  he  supposes  to  exist 
in  the  New  Testament,  affect  the  above  conclusion,  so  far 
as  the  ^yi'evailing  and  current  sense  of  the  word  among  the 
Jews  in  om-  Saviour's  time  is  concerned.  In  the  Septuagint 
version  of  the  Old  Testament,  Professor  Stuart  concedes 
hnmersion  to  be  the  pi-edominant  meaning.  So  also  in  the 
Apocrj^iha.  In  Josephus  and  PhUo  the  imiformitj  of  this 
usage  is  miquestioned.'  Hence  Professor  Stuart,  winding 
up  his  remarks  on  the  whole  use  of  the  word,  classic  and 
Hellenistic,  or  sacred,  and  asking  the  question,  "  What  is  the 
proper  force  and  signification  of  the  word  according  to  the 
general  use  of  language  ?"  concedes  fully  that  "  A  review 
of  the  preceding  examples  must  lead  any  person  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  predominant  usage  of  the  words  ^aniat 
and  §uml':(>>  is  to  designate  the  idea  of  dipping,  plunging, 
and  overwhelming." " 

This  concession  as  to  the  customary  signification  of  the 
word,  throws  the  burden  of  proving  an  exception  in  the 

where  it  is  said  of  Ajax  that  he  struck  Cleobulus  across  the  neck  with 
his  heavy  sword,  "  and  the  whole  sword  became  warmed  with  hlood."  On 
this  text  Dionysius  remarks  that  here  "  Homer  exhibits  very  great  em- 
phasis, as  much  as  to  say,  the  sword  was  so  bathed  (iSaTr-iadivroc)  with 
blood  as  to  become  heated."  But  this  should  be  rendered  as  Professor 
Stuart  allows  it  might,  "  the  sword  was  so  dipi)ed,  or  immersed  in  blood, 
as  to  become  heated." 

'  Thus  when  the  former  is  speaking  of  the  death  of  Aristobulus,  drowned 
by  order  of  Herod,  he  says:  "The  boy  was  sent  by  night  to  Jericho,  but 
there  being,  according  to  command,  plunged  (jSaTTTi^o/ievog)  in  a  diving- 
bath  by  the  Ga\ils,  he  died."     (Wars  of  the  Jews  1,  11.) 

2  Bib.  Eepos.,  April,  1833,  p.  313. 


MEANING     OF     ETERNAL.  151 

case  of  a  command  like  this,  upon  those  who  claim  it.  It 
fixes  the  meaning  of  immersion  upon  the  injunction,  unless 
some  other  sense  is  shown  to  be  more  obvious  in  this 
case. 

In  an  important  command  like  tliis  of  baptism  given  by 
Divine  inspkation,  we  must  presume  that  the  term  used  is 
unequivocal  in  itself,  as  the  Baptists  contend,  unless  the 
connection  renders  some  other  meaning  instantly  clear ;  for 
it  is  a  settled  law  of  all .  correct  language,  that  "  equivocal 
tenns  ought  ever  to  be  avoided,  unless  where  their  coimec- 
tionwith  the  other  words  of  the  sentence  zVis^avi^??/ ascertain 
the  meaning."^ 

The  whole  certainty  of  language  rests  upon  this  principle. 
We  build  upon  it  the  most  important  and  certain  of  our 
conclusions.  All  our  assurance  fi-om  Scripture,  even  of 
eternal  happiness  for  the  righteous,  rests  upon  it,  as  well  as 
of  the  eternal  punishment  of  the  wicked.  When,  for  in- 
stance, in  arguing  with  a  UniversaUst,  we  set  before  him 
the  terms  "  eternal"  and  "  everlasting,"  or  rather  the  orig- 
inal aiaviog^  he  will,  of  course,  plead  that  there  are  instances, 
like  Ecclus.,  xlv.  15,  and  that  the  term  does  not  mean  fully 
and  fairly  without  any  end.  And  have  we  to  go  through 
the  whole  range  of  Greek  literature,  and  give  up  the  eter- 
nity of  the  blessedness  of  heaven  if  there  shall  be  one  or 
two  cases  found  in  which,  figuratively  or  Uterally,  the  word 
may  possibly  have  reference  to  a  less  duration  ?  Surely  it 
is  sufficient  if  we  establish  a  prevailhig  usage.  We  are  then 
entitled  to  claim  that  as  the  sense  of  the  promise  or  the 
threatening  of  Scripture,  imless  those  who  think  otherwise 
can  produce  proof  of  a  different  meanuig  in  this  case.  The 
burden  of  showing  an  exception  is  thrown  on  them. 
•  Campbell's  Rhetoric,  book  ii.  chap.  6,  sec.  2,  part  1. 


152  PREPOSITIONS. 

So  the  commancl  to  baptize  is  here  plainly  a  command  to 
Immerse,  unless  some  special  exceptional  meaning  can  be 
clearly  proved  from  the  connection  or  circumstances  to  ap- 
ply in  this  case.  It  is  not  enough  to  show  that  the  word 
may  mean  this  or  that  in  other  cases,  but  that  it  must  mean 
something  else  here.  Until  that  be  done,  the  most  usual 
and  obvious  sense  of  the  word  is  the  command.  We  have 
no  right,  by  our  constructions,  to  put  ambiguities  into  the 
Divine  laws. 


§  II.    The  Force  op  the  Prepositions. 

In  illustrating  the  command  to  baptize,  near  the  com- 
mencement of  the  former  section,  the  use  of  any  preposition 
that  would  determine  the  nature  of  the  command  was  care- 
fully avoided,  so  that  it  might  rest  upon  the  usual  meaning 
of  the  verb  alone.  But  if  in  the  case  we  supposed,  the  cap- 
tain had  directed  the  sailor  to  "  dijj  the  bucket  in,  or  into, 
the  sea,"  the  case  would,  of  course,  be,  if  possible,  still  plainer. 
Or  if,  in  addition  to  being  told  to  "  dip  the  bucket  over- 
board," it  were  in  evidence  that  the  captain  himself  had 
just  previously  performed  the  same  ceremony  by  way  of 
example  to  the  men,  and  to  the  knowledge  of  this  sailor,  by 
dijjping  the  bucket  "  iVi"  or  "  ifito''''  the  water,  could  more 
be  desired  ?  The  concessions  of  Pedobaptists  have  made 
the  case  now,  as  we  shall  show,  as  clear  as  this  Avould  make 
it  in  the  supposed  illustration.  A  caviler  might  say  that 
even  our  English  preposition  "  in''''  is  sometimes  used  where 
we  only  mean  "on  the  surface,"  as  Genesis,  i.  22,  "  let  fowl 
multiply  in  the  earth."  Chaucer  thus  speaks  twice  of 
"  starving  wretchedly  in  a  mountain."  Less  hterally  still, 
we  speak  of  a  man  being  "  in  w  ine,"  intending  only  that 


FOKCE    OF    elg.  153 

the  wine  is  in  him.  Nor  is  "  into''''  more  absoUitely  decisive.' 
But  we  rightly  argue  that  where,  as  in  Mark,  i.  9,  or  Mat- 
thew, iii.  6,  the  obvious  sense  of  the  prej)osition  confirms  the 
obvious  sense  of  the  verb,  it  for^ns  a  construction  as  dii'ect 
and  decisive  as  language  can  make  it. 

It  has  been  commonly  asserted  by  our  Pedobaptist 
brethren  that  the  prepositions  used  hi  connection  Avith  the 
descriptions  of  baptism  could  not  assist  in  determinmg  the 
sense  of  the  command,  or  the  method  in  which  the  rite  was 
administered,  and  might  mean  either  that  baptism  was  to 
be  icith  or  ifi  water  as  we  pleased  to  miderstand  them. 
This  is  a  great  mistake. 

We  fii'st  consider  Professor  Stuart's  own  proposed  rule 
for  showing  immersion  to  be  the  sense  of  the  term  ^amil^oi 
in  the  clearest  possible  manner  by  the  use  of  the  preposi- 
tions in  connection  "with  it. 

"  The  Greek  classic  wi'iters  are  accustomed,  when  they 
designate  the  idea  of  plimgviff,  dijyping,  immersing^  etc., 
INTO  any  thing,  to  put  the  name  of  that  thmg  in  the  accu- 
sative case  after  ^dntoi  or  i^wtit/^w,  and  to  ])ut  before  this  case 
the  pi'eposition  sig>,  or  some  equivalent  one.''''  * 

In  the  account  of  the  baptism  of  Jesus  Christ,  by  John, 
Mark,  i.  9,  we  have  precisely  this  very  form  of  construction, 
rendered  as  follows  in  our  Enghsh  version  :  "  Jesus  came 
and  was  baptized  of  John  i?i  Jordan,"  {sig  rdf  'loQddi'riv). 
The  primary  and  most  natm-al  idea  of  eig  indicates  motion 
into  as  Passow,  Robmson  and  all  lexicons  agree.     As  such 

'  See  John,  vi.  15,  and  Rev.  viii.  5.  Of  course  the  English  prepositions 
"in"  and  "into"  are  used  more  specifically  as  a  whole  than  the  Greek 
^j'  and  etc ;  but  i?i  the  constrrictions  above,  the  sense  of  them  is  not  more 
clear  and  definite. 

2  Bib.  Repos.  April,  1833,  p.  313. 

7* 


154  MAEK,     1.     9. 

it  is  opposed  to  ^x/  That  it  may  mean  at^  in  other  cases, 
is  not  questioned,  because  all  the  prepositions  are  thus  in- 
definite, except  by  the  connection.  They  are  so  in  a  degree 
even  in  English.  But  here  the  sense  is  as  clear  as  Greek 
"words  can  make  it.  The  concurrence  of  translators  is  strong 
but  the  following  cases  from  Professor  Stuart  are  highly  im- 
portant concessions.  Quoting  an  exactly  similar  use  of  the 
preposition  Big  and  accusative  after  the  verb  here  used,  he 
says,  '■'■' E^amias  el;  top  noiafiov,  can  not  usually  mean  less 
than  that  the  individual  of  xohom  this  is  affirmed,  did 
actually  dive  tsto  the  icater,  or  icas  in  some  way  submerged 
into  it.'''' '^  Xot  a  single  exception  to  this  usage  has  been 
pointed  out  by  Professor  Stuart  in  the  whole  range  of  Greek 
literature,  nor,  we  may  venture  to  add,  can  it  be  found. 
Quoting  a  passage  before  referred  to,  fi-om  Dionysius  of 
HaUcarnassus  in  which  he  uses  the  ^anTl^u  followed  by  the 
dative  without  any  preposition,  and  wtichGale  renders  "dip- 
ped in  blood  ;"  Professor  Stuart  admits  that  it  is  capable  of 
being  so  rendered,  but  thinks  that  this  meaning  would  have 
been  more  certain  i^  instead  of  the  dative,  he  had  used  els 
followed  by  the  accusative.'  Just  thus  we  have  it,  Mark,  i. 
9.  So  that  there  is,  in  regard  to  oui-  Sa^viour's  baptism,  pre- 
cisely that  form  of  expression  which  Professor  Stuart  would 
himself  imagine  and  suggest  as  the  most  imequivocal  possi- 
ble to  make  it  certain  that  Jesus  was  baptized  not  at  the 
river  merely,  or  icith  its  water,  but  was  plunged  in  or  into 
the  Jordan.  He  can  conceive  of  no  combination  of  terms 
in  the  Greek  language  that  would  make  it  more  certain. 
Here  at  least  the  preposition  adds  every  confirmation  and 
clearness  that  a  preposition  can  to  the  signification  of  the 
verb  itself,  so  that  the  real  question  is,  whether  the  Greek 
I  See  LiddeU  and  Scott,  Art.  'Ev.  '  Page  317.  s  Page  305. 


LUKE,    III.    21.  155 

language  can  unequivocally  express  that  a  person  was  dip- 
ped in  water.  Robinson,  in  his  Lexicon,  gives  this  passage, 
Mark,  i.  9,  as  a  clear  case  of  being  baptized  or  jjUinged 
"  into  the  Jordon,"  and  Bloomfield  ^  (who  seems  to  think  it 
possible  that  the  eunuch  having  descended  into  the  water 
might  then  only  have  had  water  poured  copiously  on  his  head) 
gives  up  the  sense  of  this  passage  as  decisive  in  favor  of  a  com- 
plete immersion  of  the  Saviour  in  the  river.  "  The  sense," 
he  says,  "  is,  '  was  dipped  or  plunged  into^  *  *  *  ^j.  j^  may 
here  be  '  He  underwent  the  rite  of  baptism  by  being  plunged 
into  the  water.' "  Matthew's  account  corroborates  this  idea. 
It  is  then  as  clear ^  from  Mark,  i.  9,  as  it  is  in  the  j^oicer  of 
Greek  word$  to  make  it^  that  Jesus  was  baptized  by  being 
innnersed  in  Jordan.  The  verb,  the  preposition,  and  the 
circumstances  all  concur  in  rendering  this  the  only  opinion. 
And  this  alone,  in  the  absence  of  other  evidence  would  be 
sufficient  to  fix  the  meaning  of  the  command  by  an  illustra- 
tion. 

And  further,  this  being  established,  the  absence  of  any 
preposition  in  Luke's^  account  goes  to  show  that  he  con- 
sidered immersion  here  as  sufficiently  indicated  by  the  verb 
^uniiQw  itself;  and  that  there  was  nothing  but  what  was  cus- 
tomary in  this  case  so  far  as  the  method  of  baptism  was 
concerned. 

If,  then,  we  had  not  a  single  other  case  of  baptism  in  the 
New  Testament  to  illustrate  the  sense  to  be  attached  to  the 
command,  this  one,  showing  the  manner  in  which  he  who 
gave  it  had  submitted  to  the  rite  himself,  would  be  as  perfect 
and  authoritative  an  exposition  as  could  be  conceived,  suffi- 
cient to  clear  a  hundred  elliptical  expressions  in  which  it 
might  not  have  been  thought  necessary  to  add  any  prepo- 
*  Notes  oa  Matt.,  iii.  16.  2  Chap.  iii.  21. 


156  FORCE     OF    iv. 

sition.  This  is  one  of  the  most  important  results  to  a  can- 
did mind  of  going  over  Professor  Stuarts'  examination  of 
these  prepositions. 

But  is  there  any  thing  in  the  particles  elsewhere  to  con- 
tradict this  sense,  or  prevent  it  being  attached  to  the  com- 
mand ?  Do  we,  for  instance,  find  any  such  preposition  as 
we  might  expect  somewhere  to  meet  with,  if  pouring  water 
u2^on  a  person  or  sprinkling  him  with  it,  had  been  the  mod( 
adopted,  but  such  as  would  not  be  used  if  immersion  i?i 
water  were  intended  ?  More  than  fifty  years  ago  it  was  re- 
marked by  one  of  the  most  judicious  critics,  that  there  is 
not  one  such  case  in  the  New  Testament,  We  never,  for 
instance,  find  inl  or  ixno  thus  immediately  in  connection  vnth 
baptize,  "  Avhich  (as  Campbell  remarks)  we  doubtless  should 
if  spriuklmg  had  been  intended." '  On  the  contrary,  in 
Mark  i.  5,  and  Matt.  iii.  6,  we  have  a  form  of  construction 
in  which  the  use  of  the  preposition  sf  [^V^]  is,  clearly  in 
the  opinion  of  this  very  high  authority,  not  less  decisive. 
Here  we  read  of  John,  that  "  there  went  out  unto  him  Je- 
rusalem and  all  Judea  *  *  *  and  were  baptized  of  him 
in  Jordan.^''     {i*'  tw  'logSdcrr^. 

It  is  true  Professor  Stuart  contends  that  "in  aU  these 
cases  the  manner  of  the  action  is  no  further  designed  than 
the  word  i?«7rr/^w  impUes  it."^  But  here  it  is  that  the  de- 
velopment of  those  settled  rules  and  laws  of  language  aod 
of  interpretation  to  which  the  last  hundred  years  has  con- 
tributed so  much,  become  mvaluable. 

If  Professor  Stuart's  view  of  the  case  were  correct,  it 
would  simply  foUow  that  the  common  usage  of  the  verb 
would  stiU  be  decisive  of  the  command,  there  being  noth- 
ing to  cause  a  deviation.  Or  the  clear  passages  would  de- 
'  Note  on  Matthew,  uL  11.  2  Page  319. 


MARK,    I.     5. MATTHEW,    III.    6.  157 

cide  those  supposed  to  be  doubtfuL  Certainly  tbe  doubtful 
could  not  shake  the  clear.  "  If  one  passage  is  acciirately 
expressed  so  as  to  admit  of  no  doubt  it  can  not  admit  of  any 
accommodation.  The  doubtful  one  inust  he  accommodated 
to  the  plain?'''^  It  has  just  been  established  that  John  im- 
mersed Jesus  in  the  Jordan,  and  that  this  was  regarded  by 
Luke  as  sufficiently  indicated  by  the  verb  ^oLnxlXsa  alone, 
without  any  preposition.  And  we  are  now  told  that  there 
were  multitudes  of  others  who  received  the  same  rite  fi-om 
the  same  administrator.  Since  the  common,  regular,  and 
established  meaning  of  the  verb  is  to  immerse,  that  is  the 
sense  we  are  boimd  to  affix  to  it  in  the  absence  of  opposite 
proof.  If  the  signification  is  made  clear  ia  Mark,  i.  9,  we 
have  no  right  to  consider  it  ambiguous  in  verse  5.  A  nar- 
rative or  a  command  is  often  expressed  less  specifically  in 
proportion  as  it  is  supposed  to  be  well  understood.  "  There 
are  in  all  languages,"  as  Dr.  Campbell  says,  "  certain  eUipti- 
cal  expressions  which  use  has  estabhshed,  and  which  there- 
fore very  rarely  occasion  darkness.  When  they  do  occa- 
sion it  they  ought  always  to  be  avoided."  If,  then,  the 
evangelists  have  not  avoided  eUipffcal  expressions  in  regard 
to  this  rite,  in  any  case,  we  are  bound  to  conclude  it  was 
because  there  was  nothing  to  render  ambiguous  the  sense 
of  the  verb. 

But  the  prepositions  are,  ui  fact,  quite  decisive  in  confirm- 
ing the  regular  meaning  of  the  verb  in  all  cases,  as  Camp- 
bell has  shoT\Ti  and  as  wiU  be  seen  more  fuUy  at  Appendix 
C.  Here  it  is  sufficient  to  remark  that,  according  to  the 
last  edition  of  Professor  Robinson's  lexicon  of  the  New 
Testament,  in  every  case  where  any  preposition  is  used  by 
the  sacred  writers  Lq  this  relation  to  ^aml^o)^  and  the  ele- 
'  Stuart's  Ernesti,  §  186. 


158  DR.     CAMPBELL. 

ment  of  the  baptismal  rite,  it  always  indicates  the  manner, 
and  that  manner  to  he  immersion  as  plamly  as  om*  English 
Avord  "iVi"  can  express  this.  Thus,  according  to  him,  it 
should  be  translated. 

Even  Professor  Robmson's  evident  desire  in  the  three 
cases  of  St.  Luke  (considered  in  Appendix  C),  in  which 
there  is  no  preposition,  to  leave  the  sense  of  the  verb  am- 
biguous, only  makes  his  views  of  the  force  of  the  preposi- 
tions more  marked  and  decisive,  and  shows  that  the  latest 
Pedobaptist  authority  directly  contradicts  Professor  Stuart's 
estimate  of  the  force  of  the  prepositions  here.  Dr.  Campbell 
goes  further,  and  comments  with  great  severity  on  those  who 
in  these  cases  do  not  translate  the  preposition  so  as  to  give 
the  most  unequivocal  support  to  the  idea  of  immersion. 
In  his  note  on  Matt.  iii.  11,  he  says,  that  so  "inconsistent" 
are  King  James'  translators  in  havmg  rendered  the  clause 
iv  vSari  '■'■  tcith  water"  that  "none  of  them  have  scrupled  to 
render  'ev  tw  'loQddf-ri  in  the  sixth  verse  '  in  Jordan,'  though 
nothing  can  be  plainer  than  that,  if  there  be  any  incongru- 
ity m  the  expression  'in  water,'  this  'in  Jordan'  must  be 
equally  incongruous.  BfR;  they  have  seen  that  the  prepo- 
sition in  could  not  be  avoided  there  without  adopting  a 
cu'cumlocution  and  saying  '  ^dth  the  water  of  Jordan,' 
which  would  have  made  their  deviation  fi-om  the  text  too 
glaring."  "  It  is  to  be  regretted,"  he  adds,  "  that  we  have 
so  much  evidence  that  even  good  and  learned  men  allow 
their  judgments  to  be  warped  by  the  sentiments  and  cus- 
toms of  the  sect  which  they  prefer.  The  true  partisan,  of 
whatever  denomination,  always  incUnes  to  correct  the  dic- 
tion of  the  Spirit  by  that  of  the  party." 

The  above  is  a  fair  reAaew  of  the  light  thro^vn  upon  this 
question  dui'ing  the  last  centm*y  by  the  discussions  in  regard 


POOLS    IN     JEETJSALEM.  159 

to  the  force  of  the  prepositions  used  in  connection  with  bap- 
tism. In  a  word,  they  are  not  such  particles  as  "  doubt- 
less would  have  been  used"  as  Campbell  well  says,  had 
^anjCCfa  meant  in  these  cases  to  "  sprinkle"  or  to  "  pour." 
But  they  are  such  as  show  it  to  be  the  duty  of  the  trans- 
lator in  all  cases  to  make  his  construction  as  indicative  of 
immersion  as  om-  English  word  "  in''''  can  make  it. 

§  m.    Circumstances  attending  Baptism. 

It  has  often  been  urged  that  it  was  imjiossible  for  water 
to  have  been  found  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem  for  the  bap- 
tism of  the  three  thousand  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  no 
river  being  near  at  hand.  A  hundred  years  ago,  when 
sacred  geography  was  but  little  understood,  few  persons 
could  definitely  meet  such  assertions,  and  they  have  become 
so  common,  handy,  and  habitual,  that  to  this  day  the  same 
thing  is  often  urged  as  an  objection  even  by  the  most  re- 
spectable writers.  But  within  the  last  thirty  years  the 
sacred  city  has  been  so  measured  and  explored  by  smwey- 
ors  of  the  highest  authority,  that  a  point  like  this  can  be 
settled  now  on  data  that  can  not  be  shaken.  The  re- 
searches of  Dr.  Robinson  and  others,  in  Palestine,  have 
estabUshed  the  most  ample  conveniences.  It  will  be 
sufficient  simply  to  enumerate  five  or  six  of  the  princi- 
pal public  pools,  the  dimensions  of  which  are  or  were 
as  follows.  The  figures  are  in  most  cases  those  of  Dr. 
Robinson. 

1.  There  was  tJie  Pool  of  Bethesda,  where  the  impotent 
man  lay.  It  had  every  convenience  and  suitability  for  this 
rite,  three  hundred  and  sixty  feet  long,  one  hundred  and 
thirty  feet  broad,  seventy-five  feet  deep  in  parts,  but  so  ar- 


160  WATER     FOR    BAPTIZING. 

ranged  round  the  sides  as  to  afford  facilities  for  the  bap- 
tism of  multitudes. 

2.  The  Klng''s^  or  Solomon'' s  Pool^  supplied  from  "the 
Fomitaux  of  the  Virgm,"  according  to  Dr.  Robinson,  is  fif- 
teen feet  long,  six  feet  broad,  three  feet  deep  in  parts,  and 
capable  of  bemg  raised  for  bathing  purposes  by  a  slight 
dam  used  to  this  day.  It  was  suppHed  mth  a  constant 
stream  of  fresh  water,  and  exactly  fit  for  immersing  any 
number. 

3.  The  Pool  of  Siloam^  fifty-three  feet  long,  eighteen  feefe 
broad,  nineteen  feet  deep  m  parts,  with  another  smaU-jr 
pool  close  by,  both  commonly  used  for  bathing  purposes  as 
Dr.  Robinson  remarks. 

4.  The  Old  Pool,  or  Zipper  Pool  in  the  hightoay  of  thf 
Fuller's  Field,  according  to  Dr.  Robinson,  three  himdred 
and  sixteen  feet  long,  two  hundi'ed  and  eighteen  feet  broad, 
eighteen  feet  deep  in  parts,  covering  more  than  an  acre 
and  a  half,  "  with  steps  at  the  corners,  by  which  to  de- 
scend mto  it." 

5.  The  Pool  of  JETezeJciah,  according  to  Dr.  Robinson, 
two  hundred  and  forty  feet  long,  one  hundred  and  forty- 
four  feet  bi'oad,  covering  thus  more  than  an  acre  of  ground, 
with  a  descent  of  steps  at  the   north-west  angle,  and 
sloping  bottom  in  other  places. 

6.  The  Loioer  Pool  of  Glhon,  according  to  Dr.  Robmson, 
five  hundred  and  ninety-two  feet  long",  two  hundi-ed  and 
sixty  fset  broad,  forty-two  feet  deep  in  parts.  It  covers  more 
^an  four  acres  of  gromid,  is  rather  a  pond  than  a  pool  in 
point  of  size,  its  sides  lia\'ing  a  slope  just  adapted  to  a  de- 
scent for  immersion.  In  this  spot  alone,  three  thousand  or 
any  number  might  have  been  baptized  the  same  day.  There 
are  many  other  cisterns  and  pools  in  which  immersion  could 


TIME     OCCUPIED.  161 

have  been  performed.  In  all  of  these  places  the  sides  are 
more  or  less  sloping,  so  that  unless  at  the  time  of  some 
freshet  they  would  have  been  suitable  for  bathing.' 

The  time  it  would  have  occupied  to  have  unmersed  the 
three  thousand,  used  commonly  to  be  brought  forward  as 
an  objection  to  the  ordinary  signification  oi  ^antlQo)  m  Acts, 
ii.  41.  Now  it  is  seldom  adduced,  probably,  because  so 
httle  if  any  time  would  have  been  saved  by  adopting  any 
other  method. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  this  difficulty  never  has 
troubled  those  who  would  best  know  it,  if  it  were  real. 
There  is  something  painfully  little  in  having  to  discuss 
questions  of  time  about  a  matter  of  this  solemn  interest ; 
it  is  an  ordinance  that  is  usually  prolonged,  from  its  pleas- 
ing nature.  And  yet  it  may  be  proper  to  show  that  if  time 
were  an  object,  little,  if  any  thing,  would  necessarily  be 
gained  by  sprinklmg  in  j^lace  of  immersion,  where  a  large 
number  had  to  be  baptized.  What  antiquary  ever  denied 
the  immersion  of  the  ten  thousand,  baptized  in  one  day  in 
the  river  Swale,  near  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century, 
on  account  of  supposed  difficulties  of  this  kind  ?  Or  who 
ever  ventured  to  question  that  the  baptism  of  the  three 
thousand  on  Easter  eve,  a.d.  404,  at  Constantinople,  dis- 
turbed by  the  officers  sent  to  arrest  Chrysostom,  was  by 
immersion  ?  And  yet  with  all  the  complicated  mysteries 
then  introduced,  this  must  have  been  more  difficult  to  ac- 
complish in  one  night  than  that  of  the  three  thousand  in 
one  day  by  the  administrators  of  those  times. 

A  few  years  ago  a  minister  had  occasion  to  baptize 
twenty-seven   persons  in   a   stream   of  water.     The    plan 

'  For  a  fuU  description  of  the  above,  see  Baptismal  Tracts,  115,  36,  by 
Dr.  Chase  and  Rev.  G.  W.  Sampson. 


162  THE    QUESTION    OF    TIME. 

adopted,  was  one  M^hicli  had  been  customary  in  that  place 
for  one  or  two  generations.  The  administrator  having  pro- 
ceeded a  convenient  distance  into  the  stream  with  an  assist- 
ant acquainted  ^ith  the  ground,  the  candidates  properly- 
attired  followed  in  procession,  not  behind  exactly,  but  a  lit- 
tle to  the  right  hand  of  the  minister.  As  each  was  bap- 
tized he  passed  on  a  Uttle  to  the  left,  and  another  was  ready 
to  step  forward  immediately,  and  another,  and  another, 
while  those  baptized  walked  in  procession  to  the  shore.  In 
this  way  the  principal  time  really  was  occupied  by  the  ad- 
ministrator in  repeating  the  baptismal  formula,  for  that 
taken  up  by  the  immersion  was  scarcely  a  second,  and 
would  not  make  the  service  much,  if  any  longer  than  by 
pouring.  It  was  a  solemn  season  and  one  over  which 
neither  the  administrator  nor  the  candidates  had  the  least 
disposition  to  hurry,  nor  will  that  semi-circular  procession 
ever  fade  from  the  minds  of  those  who  witnessed  it.  A 
short  time  afterward,  one  of  the  deacons,  a  gentleman  most 
careful  and  exact  in  all  he  said  and  did,'  informed  the  writer 
that  he  had  marked  the  time  occupied  m  administering 
baptism  to  the  whole  twenty-seven  candidates,  which  was 
just  eight  minutes.  In  this  way  which  is  as  solemn  as  any 
in  which  the  ordinance  could  be  performed,  especially  where 
there  is  a  large  number  of  candidates,  the  whole  of  the 
three  thousand  might  have  been  baptized  by  twelve  admin- 
istrators in  less  than  07ie  hotir  and  a  quarter. 

But  a  better  knowledge  of  early  ecclesiastical  customs 
than  was  customary  a  himdred  years  ago  has  reduced  this 
objection  to  a  perfect  absurdity.     Then  the  masses  of  Chris- 

*  The  late  Oliver  Stevens,  Esq.,  of  Savannah,  father  of  the  esteemed 
missionary  of  that  name  in  Burmah,  for  so  many  years  the  companion 
in  labor  of  Judson. 


THE    JAILOR.  163 

tians  probably  believed  that  under  no  circumstances  could 
a  baptism  be  valid  unless  performed  by  a  minister,  regu- 
larly ordained,  and  bringing  down  a  title  to  administer  it 
in  succession  from  the  xVpostles,  who,  it  was  therefore 
granted,  could  alone  have  been  the  dispensers  of  the  ordi- 
nances in  this  case.  But  now  it  is  well  known  to  all,  that 
in  the  earliest  times  the  administration  of  baptism  was  not 
confined  to  ministers,  and  that  the  Apostles  generally  pre- 
ferred not  to  baptize  with  their  own  hands. 

It  is  2:)robable  that  the  seventy  at  least  were  even  more 
engaged  in  baptizing  than  the  twelve,  according  to  apostohc 
custom.'  These  two  bodies  alone  would  give  eighty-two 
administrators.  If  we  should  suppose  a  hundred  present, 
who  might  be  employed  in  case  of  any  difiiculty  as  to  time, 
and  even  a  minute  occupied  in  the  baptism  of  each  (which 
is  more  than  double  what  was  necessary  where  there  were 
several  candidates),  the  whole  might  have  been  adminis- 
tered in  thirty  minutes.  Making  all  allowance  for  changes 
of  dress,  there  is  no  difficulty  as  to  time.'' 

Such  are  the  two  only  difficulties,  from  attendant  circum- 
stances in  the  way  of  consideruig  the  rite  of  baj^tism  al- 
ways to  have  required  immersion,  unless  perhaps  some 
should  suppose  that  of  the  jailor  and  his  household  to  de- 
mand elucidation.  But  in  those  Eastern  countries  where 
baths  are  so  usual,  what  is  there  remarkable  in  this  case  ? 

*  See  Acts,  xi.  48,  and  1  Cor.  i.  14. 

2  It  is  surprising  that  it  never  occurred  to  those  who  make  this  ob- 
jection to  immersion,  how  much  more  strongly  it  would  bear  against  tre- 
fant  baptism,  which,  if  administered,  as  a  matter  of  course,  according  to 
their  supposition,  and  only  on  this  account  not  recorded,  must  have  re- 
quired them  to  bring  forward  their  children  also,  doubling  the  number  to 
be  baptized,  and  far  more  than  doubling  the  time  required  for  its  admin- 
istration. 


164  PHILIPPI. 

Judson  observed  the  commonness  of  baths  in  jail  premises 
even  in  India. 

However,  the  labors  of  modern  Pedobaptists  may  assist 
us  here  a  Httle.  It  was  in  a  city  (Philippi)  on  "  the  Place 
of  Foimtalns,"  "  so  called  from  its  numerous  streams^'''' 
scooped  out  no  doubt  into  many  reservou's,  on  account 
of  the  gold  and  silver  mines  which  first  brought  its  early 
inhabitants  together.  Here  flowed  the  River  Gangas,  by 
which  must  have  stood  the  house  of  prayer  where  Lydia's 
heart  was  opened.  But  was  there  water  i7i  the  prison  sufii- 
cient  for  baptism  ?  it  is  demanded.  Probably  not,  for  as 
Connybeare  has  shown,  i^is  distinctly  intimated  that  the 
jailor  took  them  out  of  the  prison  itself  to  some  fountain 
or  convenient  place  for  ablution,  probably  connected  'with 
the  prison,  where  he  washed  their  stripes,  and  was  baptized 
before  he  again  removed  them  into  his  o^^l  house.' 

Now  this  is  every  thing  which  used  to  be  supposed  ad- 
verse to  the  idea  of  immersion  connected  with  the  rite  of 
baptism  in  the  New  Testament ;  and  it  all  exhibits  not  the 
sUghtest  occasion  to.  imagine  any  deviation  intended  from 
the  ordinary  signification  of  the  word,  when  used  m  the 
command. 

But  this  is  not  all.  There  are  many  facts  mentioned  that 
have  been  supposed  to  imply  unmersion.  To  begin  with 
the  baptism  of  John.  It  is  particularly  mentioned  that  he 
went  to  tJie  Jordan  to  baptize,  and  that  Jesus  came  to  that 
river  to  receive  the  orduiance.     Apart  fi-om  the  force  of 

'  napaXaJa)!',  in  verse  33,  intimates  a  change  of  place.  Prof.  Stuart 
fails  of  his  usual  accuracy,  therefore,  in  supposing  the  water  for  the  wash- 
ing of  their  stripes  and  baptism  to  have  been  brought  into  the  prison. 
See  Connybeare  and  Howson's  Life  of  St.  Paul,  vol.  i.  pp.  311,  331.  Lon- 
don quarto  edition. 


MUCH    WATER.  165 

the  prepositions,  why  is  he  represented  as  "coming  up 
(dno)  out  of,  or  even  from  the  water  f "  And  Avhy  is  it  so 
carefully  specified '  that  it  was  "  because  there  was  much 
water  there,''''  that  John  selected  Enon  as  a  place  for  bap- 
tism, and  that  the  people  came  there  and  were  baptized  ? 
It  has  been  said  that  it  may  mean  simply  that  there  were 
"  many  strearns^''  there.  Suppose  it  so ;  what  then  ?  Why 
the  people  may  have  brought  their  flocks  with  them,  and 
have  needed  convenient  streams  for  these.  But  why  then 
should  the  water  be  more  carefully  specified  than  the  grass? 
For,  what  we  want  to  know  is,  why  the  "  much  water"  or 
"  many  waters"  is  so  particularly  mentioned,  just  between 
the  two  announcements  of  baptism.  It  must  have  been  for 
the  reason  given  by  Bloomfield,  ^.  e.,  that  "  it  is  plain,  from 
various  passages  of  the  Gospels,  that  baptism  was  adminis- 
tered by  the  baptizer  after  having  placed  the  2^erson  to  be 
baptized  in  some  river  or  brooJc.  And  that  plenty  of  water 
was  thoiight  desirable,  we  learn  from  John,  iii.  23."*  The 
phrase  vSaia  no'klu  is  so  used  in  all  other  places  as  almost  ne- 
cessarily to  imply  a  large  body  or  bodies  of  water,  rather  than 
many  little  streams.*  Campbell  adheres  to  the  English 
translation.  It  is  straining  to  question  that  the  allusion  here 
is  clearly  to  immersion  and  nothing  else.' 

The  case  of  the  eunuch  is  generally  considered  as  an 
illustration  of  immersion.'*  "  See  here  is  water."  Why 
this  for  aspersion  ?  Wliy  this  remark,  and  if  made,  why  is 
it  recorded  ?     And  again,  why  do  they  botJi  go  down  iiito 

*  John,  iii.  23.  '  See  Bloomfield's  Notes  on  Acts,  viii.  38. 

'  See  Ripley's  Reply  to  Stuart,  pp.  64-7  2 ;  and  Robinson's  Calmet. 
Art.  Gibeon. 

*  But  see  Samson's  letter,  pp.  146-152,  in  Chase's  Design  of  Baptism. 
»  Acts,  viii.  38. 


166  1    CORINTHIANS,    X.    2. 

(slg)  the  "water,  and  come  up  out  of  (if)  the  watei"  ?  It  is 
said  the  prepositions  «zay  mean  that  they  went  doMai  only 
to  the  AA-atcr,  and  came  up/ro?K  it.  Suppose  it  so.  Why 
do  they  both  go  down  to  the  water  ?  Wliy  not  send  the 
charioteer  ?  or  if  they  go,  why  so  particular  to  record  it, 
and  the  coming  up  out  of,  or  from  it  ?  But  in  fact  there  is 
not  the  slightest  reason  to  depart  from  the  natural  sense  of 
Bis,  which  clearly  indicates  here  into,  as  ifc  out  of,  to  suit  the 
verb  and  the  noun.  Bloomfield  admits  this,  and  that  "  the 
baptizer  and  the  baptized"  both  went  "  into  water  of  some 
depth,"  m  tliis  case,  and  customarily.  For  what  then 
should  both  go  into  the  water,  in  baptism,  but  immersion  ? 
These  circumstances,  so  naturally  and  specifically  recorded, 
all  make  up  an  amount  of  corroboration  that  it  is  difficult 
to  estimate  and  impossible  to  overcome,  conceded  and  con- 
firmed as  we  find  them  now  by  the  clearest  results  of  mod- 
ern criticism. 

§  IV.     The  Figurative  allusions  to  Baptism. 

Some  have  foimd  in  1  Corinthians,  x.  2,  "  were  baptized 
unto  Moses  ua  the  cloud,  and  m  the  sea,"  an  allusion  to 
the  spray  of  the  Red  Sea  sprmkUng  the  Israelites.  This 
Professor  Stuart  gives  up.'  Baptists  consider  that  the  ref- 
erence is  to  their  going  down  mto  the  bed  of  the  Red  Sea, 
which  stood  as  a  wall  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left, 
mitil  they  came  up  again  out  of  the  deep,  the  cloud  above 
them  completmg  the  immersion.  Tliat  this  baptism  was 
figurative,  and  not  related  as  Uteral,  is  evident.  But  aU 
figures  rest  on  a  basis  of  fact.  That  the  IraeUtes  were  not 
literally  immersed  in  the  sea  is  plain.  But  that  is  far  fi'om 
*  Page  333. 


THE    ARK    A    FIGUEE.  167 

justifying  Professor  S.'s  assertion,  that  it  seems  "  of  neces- 
sity to  imply  that  immersion  is  not  essential  to  the  idea  of 
baptism."  For  the  "  idea"  is  founded  on  the  literal  fact. 
What  hteral  fact,  in  regard  to  baptism,  is  the  figure  based 
on  ?  Professor  Stuart  replies  thus  :  "  I  do  not  see  how,  on 
the  whole,  we  can  make  less  of  it  than  to  suppose  that  it  has 
a  tacit  reference  to  the  idea  of  surrounding  m  some  way." 
And  again  :  "  It  is  therefore  a  kind  of  figurative  mode  of 
expression,  derived  frova  the  idea  that  baptism  is  surround- 
ing ynth.  a  fluid."  ^  But  how  a  person  could  be  surroimded 
with  water  in  baptism  ^vithout  being  immersed,  it  must 
take  some  ingenuity  to  discover,  especially  if  the  idea  he  so 
often  insists  on,  of  overichelming^  be  added  as  embraced  in 
the  word  baptize. 

In  1  Peter,  iii.  20,  21,  baptism  is  said  to  be  the  figure  of 
cm*  being  placed  in  a  state  of  salvation,  like  Noah  in  the 
ark,  who  was  thus  kept  alive  in  the  midst  of  the  waters. 
Here  the  same  figure  founded  upon  the  Avater  surrounding 
and  immersing  the  sides  of  the  ark  in  which  he  was  en- 
closed, is  evident.  From  this  idea,  Noah's  ark  became  a 
favorite  symbol  of  the  Church  with  ancient  Christians,  so 
long  as  iromersion  m  as  jjracticed,  and  is  constantly  found 
rudely  sculptured  in  the  catacombs  of  Rome,  to  indicate 
that  the  tenant  of  the  tomb  A^dthin  AA'as  a  member  of  the 
Church.  The  publication  of  many  interestmg  researches 
of  modern  ecclesiastics  among  the  tombs  of  these  ancient 
saints,  illustrated  by  plates,  has  withm  the  last  few  years 
thrown  new  interest  around  this  passage.  So  far  as  it  goes 
it  must  be  favorable  to  the  Baptist  views  of  the  question 
of  immersion,  especially  as  the  Apostle,  in  guarding  us 
against  the  superstition  of  supposing  its  efficacy  derived 
•  Page  336. 


168  TRENCH    ON    HEBREWS    X.  22. 

from  "  washing  away  the  filth  of  the  flesh,"  clearly  implies 
that  baptism  was  always  a  rite  in  which  there  was  a  thor- 
ough washing  of  the  whole  body. 

Hebrews,  x.  22,  "  having  our  bodies  washed  with  pure 
water,"  Professor  Stuart  admits  to  be  in  no  way  inconsist- 
ent with  immersion,  as  this  is  one  way  in  which  cleansing 
may  be  efiected,  but  gathers  from  it  that  "  loashing  was  at 
least  one  method,  and  perhaps  even  the  more  ordinary  one, 
of  practicing  baptism/  But  iBkovftivoi  shoiild  here  be  ren- 
dered "  bathed  in.''''  Trench,  m  his  masterly  "  Synonymes 
of  the  New  Testament,"  says,'^  "  ^oisbv  is  not  so  much  '  to 
wash'  as  '  to  bathe,'  and  lavadai^  '  to  bathe  oneself,'  implies 
always,  not  the  bathing  of  a  part  of  the  body,  but  of  the 
whole — Iskovfili^oi  to  au)fia^  Heb.  X.  23."  Thus,  baptism  is 
here  compared  to  a  bath,  and  the  accurate  rendering  of  the 
passage  would  be,  "  having  our  bodies  bathed  in  pure  water." 

In  Luke,  xii.  50,  the  Saviour  says,  according  to  our  trans- 
lators, "  I  have  a  baptism  to  be  baptized  with,"  etc.  The 
use  of  the  word  with  in  connection  with  baptism,  is  preju- 
dicial, for  it  is  a  preposition  we  never  use  in  connection  with 
immersion,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  original  to  warrant 
its  insei'tion.  Campbell  gives  the  true  sense :  "  I  have  an 
immersion  to  undergo,"  or  as  Professor  Stuart  says,  "  I  am 
about  to  be  overwhelmed  with  suifering."  So  in  Mark  x. 
38,  "  Can  ye  indeed  take  upon  you  to  undergo  patiently  and 
submissively,  sufierings  like  mine — suiferings  of  an  over- 
whelmi7ig  nn.twi'eV'  So  in  Matthew,  iii.  11,  which  should 
read  as  Campbell  translates  it  and  defends,  "  He  shall  bap- 
tize you  in  {ir)  the  Holy  Ghost  and  in  fire.' 

'  Most  would  admit  that  whatever  is  here  meant  by  "  washed  with 
pure  water,"  is  spoken  of  as  pertaining  to  all  the  Christians  of  the 
Apostle's  time.  "^  Pages  216,  IT.  ^  See  his  Notes. 


ROMANS,     VI.     4.  169 

There  are  two  other  figurative  passages  considered  by 
the  Baptists  more  decisive  than  any  others  as  to  the  Ught 
they  throw  on  the  manner  in  which  the  rite  was  imiversally 
at  first  understood  to  be  commanded.  The  first  of  these  is 
Romans,  vi.  4,  "  We  are  buried  with  him  by  (Sin)  baptism 
into  death,  that  hke  as  Christ  was  raised  from  the  dead  by 
the  glor}^  of  the  Father,  even  so  Ave  also  should  walk  in 
ne^A^less  of  Ufe."  To  an  imsophisticated  English  reader,  the 
allusion  here,  it  is  urged,  is  plain.  Baptism  is  made  the 
figure  of  a  hurial,  and  immersion  is  thereby  indicated.  Al- 
most every  commentator  of  repute,  ancient  and  modern, 
has  adopted  this  view.  Professor  Stuart,  even  while  un- 
dertaking to  show  a  difibrent  sense,  confesses  that  "  it  is 
difficult  to  procure  a  patient  re-hearing,  becaxxse  it  has  been 
so  long  regarded  by  some  as  being  out  of /air  dispute."* 
[See  Appendix  D.] 

The  whole  weight  of  modern  criticism  is  utterly  against 

'  The  apostolic  constitutions  say,  "Baptism  is  given  into  the  death  of 
Jesus.  The  water  is  instead  of  the  burial ;  *  *  *  the  descent  into 
the  water,  the  dying  together  with  Christ,  the  ascent  out  of  the  water, 
the  rising  again  with  Him."  Book  iii.  ch.  17.  And  so  again  at  each 
baptism,  the  prayer  was  solemnly  made,  "Sanctify  this  water,  so  that  he 
who  is  baptized,  may  die  with  Him,  and  may  be  buried  with  Him,  and 
may  rise  witli  Him,"  while  baptism  is  thus  called  in  the  same  prayer,  "  an 
emblem  of  the  death  of  Christ."  (Chase's  edition  of  the  Constitutions  and 
Canons,  book  vii.  chap.  43. 

Chrysostom  thus  makes  baptism  an  emblem  and  proof  of  the  resurrec- 
tion (Hom.  40,  in  1  Corinthians),  and  again  "we  dip  our  heads  in  water 
as  in  a  grave.  Our  old  man  is  buried,  and  when  we  rise  up  again  the  new 
man  rises  therewith."  (Hom.  25,  in  John  iii.  5.)  In  fact  it  would  prob- 
ably be  impossible  to  find  a  question  as  to  the  doubt  of  these  words 
to  immersion,  during  the  first  fifteen  hundred  years  of  the  Christian 
era, 

8 


170  FORCE    OF    ROMANS    IV.     4. 

the  new  view,  as  Bloomfield  has  shown  m  his  comment  on 
Romans,  vi.  4.  "  The  rite  of  immersion,"  he  says  "  in  the 
baptismal  ^sater,  and  egress  from  it,  were  used  as  a  symbol 
of  breakhig  off  aU  connection  with  the  present  sinful  hfe, 
and  giving  one's  self  to  a  new  and  pure  one."  And  he  gives 
the  sense  of  verse  4,  as  follows :  "  We  have  been  thus  buried 
in  the  waters  of  haptmn.  There  is  a  plain  allusion  to  the 
ancient  custom  of  baptism  by  immersion."  Connybeare 
declares  of  Komans,  vi.  3,  that  "  this  passage  can  not  he 
understood  except  by  remembering  that  the  primitive  mode 
of  baptism  was  by  immersion."  It  is  useless  to  multiply 
authorities. 

The  real  importance  of  these  allusions,  Rom.  vi.  4,  Col. 
ii.  12,  Is  that  tliey  complete  the  proof  that  nothing  else  was 
known  by  the  Apostle  as  Christian  baptism.  It  has  been 
coimnonly  conceded  by  Pedobaptists,  that  all  John's  bap- 
tisms were  by  immersion,  that  Jesus  was  thus  baptized,  but 
then  they  have  sometimes  supposed  that  Christian  baptism 
was  variously  adiuiiiistered.  liut  St.  I'aul  here  obviously 
shows  that  all  those  to  whom  lie  was  writing  were  as  a 
matter  of  course,  and  an  essential  part  of  their  baptism 
"buried"  in  the  water.  Jle  says  of  hhnself  and  all  the 
primitive  Christians,  "  loe  are  buried  with  Christ  by  baptism." 
This  figure  shows  how  the  command  to  be  baptized  was 
every  where  understood.  Indeed  the  form  of  a  question 
in  verse  3  (which  as  Connybeare  remarks  can  only  be  un- 
derstood by  reference  to  immersion),  reduces  every  other 
view  to  an  absurdity.  "  KnoAv  ye  not  that  so  many  of  us 
as  were  baptized  into  Jesus  Christ  were  baptized  into  his 
death  ?  therefore  we  are  buried  with  him  by  baptism,"  etc. 

Thus  the  biblical  criticism  of  the  last  hundred  years  has 
unfolded  an  amount  of  evidence  from  the  figurative  allusions 


HISTORICAL   VIEW.  lYl 

to  the  ordinance  of  baptism  in  the  New  Testament,  which 
renders  it  certain  that  the  universal  understanding  and 
and  practice  of  all  the  earliest  Christians  in  reference  to  the 
method  of  administering  the  rite  of  baptism,  Avas  exactly 
that  of  the  Baptists.  For  according  to  the  mterpretation 
of  Bloomfield,  Connybeare,  and  others,  the  language  of 
Romans,  vi.  4,  is  not  true  of  any  persons  but  those  im- 
mersed in  baptism.  They  ij^ay  be,  and  thousands  are, 
spiritually  dead  with  Christ.  They  may  be  spiritually 
risen  with  him.  But  they  are  not  as  all  primitive  Christians 
plainly  were  "  buried  with  hhn  by  baptism.'''' 

§  Y.    Historical  View  op  Immersion  and  Sprinkling. 

Professor  Stuart  has  devoted  a  section  to  the  proper  hi- 
quiry,  "  What  was  the  mode  of  baptism  practiced  by  the 
churches  in  the  early  ages  of  Christianity,  and  after  the 
times  of  the  Apostles  ?"  While  he  gives  it  up  as  "  a  thing 
made  out  that  the  ancient  practice  was  immersion,"'  yet 
he  also  thinks  it  "  no  doubt  true  that  there  were  cases  of 
exception  allowed  to  persons  in  extreme  sickness  or  old  age."  "^ 
This  is  substantially  the  Baptist  view,  with  one  important 
omission.  Professor  Stuart  does  not  add  how  soon  tliis 
exceptional  practice  begun.  Baptists  have  clauned  that 
there  is  not  a  single  case  of  any  baptism  but  immersion  on 
record,  before  near  the  middle  of  the  thii'd  century.  In  a 
chronological  table  cited  by  Coleman  from  Rheinwald,  a.d. 
230,  is  given  as  the  date  of  the  tirst  appearance  of  clinic 
baptism.^ 

In  examining  the  writings  of  the  Apostolic  Fathers,  Pro- 
fessor Stuart  complains  that  "  scarcely  any  thing  of  a  defi- 
*  Page  359.  '  Ibid.  ^  Christian  Antiquities,  p.  531. 


1V2  HERMAS. 

nite  nature  occurs  respecting  baptism."  We  can  easily 
gather  that  baptism  Avas  practiced,  he  thinks,  but  are  not  able 
to  determine  Avith  precision  the  manner  of  the  rite.  He  refers 
us,  however,  to  a  jjassage  in  the  "  Shepherd  of  Hernias," 
which  he  partly  quotes.  Taken  as  a  whole,  it  is  an  import- 
ant passage  here.  The  vision  is  indeed  but  the  dream  of 
some  ignorant  Christian,  intended  to  describe  his  views  of 
the  building  up  of  the  Churcjj.  This  is  represented  by  the 
erection  of  a  tower  upon  a  rock,  near  by  a  place  of  deep 
water.  The  shejjherd  sees  stones  raised  one  by  one  out  of 
the  deep,  and  others  afterward  rise  out  of  it  themselves, 
and  are  carried  by  virgins  and  built  up  in  the  form  of  a 
tower.  The  she])herd  asks  the  angels  what  these  are  that 
were  raised  up  out  of  the  deep  water,  and  they  are  sho^vn 
to  be  the  Old  Testament  saints ;  those  who  rose  up  of  them- 
selves are  the  Apostles  and  saints  of  the  New  Testament. 
It  is  then  asked  how  the  Old  Testament  samts  came  to  arise 
out  of  the  water  and  enter  into  this  tower,  seeing  that  they 
were  holy  spirits  long  ago.  The  angel  intimates  that  they 
were  baptized  in  the  world  of  spirits  by  the  Apostles.  "  It 
was  necessary  for  them  to  ascend  by  loater^  that  they  might 
be  at  rest,"  and  that  they  being  dead  nevertheless,  were 
thus  scaled.  "  That  seal,"  he  proceeds,  "  is  the  water  of 
baptism  intoichich  men  descend^  being  under  obligation  to 
death  (/.  e.  in  a  state  of  condemnation),  but  come  up  ap- 
pointed unto  life."  The  shepherd  next  asks  Avhy  the  New 
Testament  saints  also  ascend  with  them  out  of  the  deep,  and 
is  answered  that  the  Apostles  and  teachers  went  and 
preached  to  those  who  Avere  dead  before,  and  gave  them 
this  seal.  "  They  went  down  therefore  into  the  xcater  xcith 
them^  and  again  came  np.^'' 

The  Avhole  of  this  is  one  of  the  most  absurd  allegories 


JUSTIN     MARTYR.  173 

handed  down  to  us  in  early  Church  History.  It  shows  how 
soon  the  doctrine  of  the  necessity  of  baptism  to  salvation 
entered,  and  the  folly  of  havhig  to  go  out  of  the  Bible  for 
any  part  of  our  Christianity,  shice,  at  one  of  the  very  first 
steps,  we  meet  with  such  superstition  as  this.  However, 
the  only  question  here  is  whether,  when  this  was  written,  it 
is  not  evident  that  immersion  alone  was  considered  baptism, 
seeing  that  the  writer  plainly  thought  that  even  the  Old 
Testament  samts  had  to  be  immersed  !  And  this,  though 
ordhiarily  ranked  as  a  production  of  the  fii'st  century,  is 
r^ow,  on  mternal  evidence,  commonly  placid  in  the  second. 

Professor  Stuart  proceeds  to  say,  that  in  the  writings  of 
Justm  Martyr,  "  wdiere  we  might  naturally  expect  some- 
thing definite,  nothing  of  this  nature  occurs." '  He  quotes 
the  well-known  passage  from  that  writer,  in  which  he  says 
that  those  who  become  believers  "  are  led  by  ics  to  a  place 
tchere  there  is  water ^''  etc.  Professor  Stuart  does  not  attach 
the  same  mipoitance  to  the  verb  y-oxna  that  Trench  would 
have  done,  where  Justin  says  that  there  "  they  are  bathed  hi 
the  name  of  God  the  Father,"  etc.  Yet  he  observes :  "  I 
am  persuaded  that  this  passage,  as  a  whole,  most  naturally 
refers  to  immersion ;  for  Avhy,  on  any  other  ground,  is  the 
convert,  who  is  to  be  initiated,  to  go  out  to  the  place  where 
there  is  water.  There  could  be  no  need  of  this  if  mere 
sprinkling,  or  partial  effusion  only,  was  customary  in  the 
time  of  Justin."  Nor  is  there  anything  contrary  produced 
until  long  after  TertuUian,  when  it  ceases  to  be  so  impor- 
tant. 

Augusti,  however,  translated  by  Coleman,  says :  "  It  is  a 
great  mistake  to  suppose  that  baptism  by  immersion  was 
discontinued  when  mfant  baptism  became  prevalent.  This 
>  Page  855. 


1V4  "a   thing   made  out." 

"was  as  early  as  the  sixth  cent uiy,  but  the  practice  of  immer- 
sion contmued  mitil  the  thirteenth  or  fourteenth  century. 
Indeed,  it  has  never  been  formally  abandoned,  but  is  still 
the  mode  of  administermg  infant  baptism  in  the  Greek 
Church." ' 

"  But  enough,"  writes  Professor  Stuart.  "  It  is,  as  says 
Augusti,  a  thing  made  out,  i  e.,  the  ancient  practice  of  im- 
mersion. So,  indeed,  all  AVTiters  who  have  thoroughly  in- 
vestigated this  subject  conclude.  I  know  of  no  one  usage 
of  ancient  times  which  seems  to  me  more  clearly  and  cer- 
tainly made  out.  I  can  not  see  how  it  is  possible  for  any 
candid  man  who  examines  the  subject  to  deny  this.'' 


We  have  thus  shown  the  progress  of  Baptist  views,  from 
the  concessions  of  Pedobaptists,  as  to  the  rules  of  interpre- 
tation ;  the  usual  meaning  of  ^ami'c^oo ;  the  force  of  the  pre- 
positions used  m  connection  "ndth  it ;  as  to  the  places  where, 
and  circumstances  under  which,  both  in  Scripture  and 
early  Church  History,  the  rite  was  performed ;  and  even  as 
to  the  figurative  allusions  which  are  all  demonstrative  of 
the  universality  of  immersion  in  primitive  baptism. 

'  Coleman's  Christian  Antiquities,  chap.  14,  sec.  8,  p.  275  Since  the 
first  pubhcation  of  the  above  work,  especiaDy  valuable  as  an  excel- 
lent condensation  and  translation  of  important  portions  of  the  conclusions 
of  Augusti,  Rheinwald,  and  others,  Mr.  Coleman  has  been  unfortunately- 
tempted  to  recast  his  work,  put  in  a  arge  amount  of  his  own,  and  oblit- 
erate some  valuable  portions  of  the  translations.  By  this  his  book  is 
far  from  having  gained  in  real  value  whatever  may  be  the  ofTect  on  its 
popularity.  Among  other  results  of  this,  he  seems  to  express  the  eon- 
clusioD  that  one  of  the  earliest  corruptions  of  the  Church  was  the  intro- 
duction of  immersion  instead  of  pouring,  or  sprinkling,  which  he  sagely 
conjectures  must  have  taken  place  at  a  very  early  date  1         2  Page  359. 


PROPER  AND  TROPICAL  SENSES.        175 

IsTothing  more  is  necessary  to  determine  most  certainly 
that  the  command  to  baptize  is  a  command  to  immerse,  al- 
though the  word  ^amllix)  should  have  a  hundred  other  pos- 
sible meanings.  Nor  does  the  correctness  of  Baptist  \dews 
depend  in  the  least  upon  the  nicer  philological  question  we 
are  about  to  discixss  in  the  next  section. 


§  VI.    BanTj^u  Alwats  Involves  Immersion. 

It  will  now  be  proper  to  show  how  far  the  discussions  of 
the  last  hundred  yeai's  have  gone  toward  settling  definitely 
that  ^unil'Qoi  is  never  used  in  classical  or  Hellenistic  Greek, 
except  with  a  direct  reference  to  its  primary  and  common 
signification — to  clip,  to  immerse. 

All  words  are  either  proper  terms  or  rhetorical  tropes ; 
that  is,  they  are  used  either  literally  ov  figuratively.  When 
one  of  our  poets,  describing  a  sunset,  says : 

"  Each  flinty  spire 
Was  hathed  in  floods  of  living  fire." 

Or  another  says : 

"  A  cold,  shuddering  dew 
Dii^s  me  all  o'er," 

it  occasions  us  no  embarrassment.  We  understand  the 
figurative  language  by  first  of  all  referring  back  in  our  minds 
to  the  literal  meaning  of  the  teiTus.  And  although  the 
word  "  bathe"  sometimes  in  EngUsh  means  only  to  saturate, 
or  wet,  copiously  with  and  not  in  a  fluid,  yet  in  such  a  pass- 
age as  that  where  it  occurs  above,  we  form  our  conception 
of  the  figure  by  conceiving  first  of  all  of  an  immersion.  And 
we  grasp  the  beauty  of  the  figure  only  as  we  get  a  vivid 


176  DANIEL,     IV,    30. 

conception  of  the  literal  meaning  of  the  term  as  there  used, 
distinct  from  all  its  other  meanings.  The  figurative  use  of 
a  word,  then,  must  always,  so  long  as  it  is  figurative,  bring 
before  the  mind  some  pre-existing  and  well-known  proper 
sense  of  the  term.  Such  a  word  as  "  dip"  in  English,  always, 
even  when  used  figuratively,  as  above,  of  the  dew,  first  of 
all  gives  us  the  idea  of  an  immersion,  which,  transferred  to 
the  action  of  the  dew,  suggests  the  conception  of  a  satura- 
tion as  complete  as  if  there  had  been  a  literal  dippmg  in  water. 

No  instance  in  the  whole  compass  of  Greek  literature  has 
been  adduced  of  so  figurative  a  use  of  ^ccmCru)  as  this  of  the 
word  "  <7i/)."  One  case,  however,  has  been  produced  fi-om 
the  Septuagint  of  a  kindred  term,  §6.mn)^  used  in  very  much 
this  way.  It  is  Daniel,  iv.  30,  concernmg  ISTebuchadnezzar, 
who,  it  is  said,  was  driven  forth  fi"om  among  men,  and  made 
to  eat  grass  like  the  ox,  "  and  his  body  was  {i3&(frl)  hathed 
in  the  dew  of  heaven."  A  single  case  like  this  does  not 
m.olest  the  literal  meaning  of  §('nn(x)^  but  rather  confirms  it, 
implying  as  do  all  the  figurative  uses  both  of  Sanjot  and 
§uTn[t,(x)^  the  largest  possible  application  of  fluid  that  the 
nature  of  the  case  will  admit. 

But  it  is  unnecessary  to  pursue  this  further,  as  it  is  ad- 
mitted by  all,  that  in  the  command  to  baptize  the  principal 
verb  is  not  iised  figuratively,  but  in  some  proper  sense,  and 
the  verb  (id-nTw  is  never  used  at  all. 

Sometimes,  it  is  true,  that  which  was  at  first  only  tropical, 
becomes  at  length  a  literal  meaning  of  a  word,  and  it  is 
often  a  nice  point  to  say  whether  a  term  is  used  literally 
or  figuratively.  It  is  thus  that  meanriigs  multiply.  But 
tliis  change  is  only  brought  about  by  the  common  and  long- 
continued  usage  of  a  metaphor,  so  that  it  ceases  to  have  any 
influence  upon  the  imagination  of  those  to  whom  it  is  ad- 


LIDDELL     AND     SCOTT.  177 

dressed.  TIjus  we  never  speak  now  of  "  edifying''^  a  house 
that  we  may  ie  erecting,  but  even  confine  the  proper  sig- 
nification of  the  word  to  what  must  at  first  have  been  its 
metaphorical  use,  and  talk  only  of  edifying  an  audience. 

In  ascertaining  the  literal  meanmg  of  the  tenn  j?anT<'^Q», 
aU  the  figurative  uses  of  it  will  not  afiect  us  then,  unless 
the  same  figure  can  be  sho^Ti  to  have  become  so  hack- 
neyed, that  it  had  ceased  to  throw  back  the  hnagination  to 
another  and  literal  sense,  when  alone  it  would  become  a 
proper  meaning  of  the  word  itself 

(«).    Classic  use  of  §anxilfa. 

The  following  facts  may  be  considered  as  no  slight  proof 
wrought  out  by  a  singular  combination  of  circumstances, 
that  in  the  whole  compass  of  classic  Greek  and  in  the  con- 
ception of  the  best  critical  authorities  in  the  world,  the 
term  ^aml'^a  is  tiever  once  used  without  i?ivolving  the  idea 
of  immersion^  and  that  it  has  literally  7io  proper  signiflccir- 
tion  that  does  not  include  that  idea. 

In  July,  1843,  there  was  published  with  great  care  at 
the  Oxford  University  Press,  the  now  celebrated  and  stand- 
ard Greek  Lexicon  of  Messrs.  LiddeU  and  Scott.  It  was 
founded  on  the  great  one  of  Passow,  pubUshed  in  Germany, 
but  embraced  an  amoimt  of  other  investigations  far  beyond 
his.  In  fact,  it  may  be  almost  said  that  there  is  not  an  im- 
portant sentence  in  the  whole  range  of  Greek  literature 
that  it  has  not  weighed. 

At  the  commencement  of  this  chapter,  we  gave  its  defi- 
Tiitions  of  ^aml^o)  as  they  appeared  in  the  first  edition. 
PubUshed  by  the  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England, 
then-  testimony  in  favor  of  "pouring,"  "steeping',"  or 
"  wetting,"  as  sometimes  proper  meanings,  might  not  have 

8* 


178  LEXICOiSr    COREECTED. 

been  absolutely  conclusive  Avith  a  Baptist,  "without  better 
proofs  than  they  attempted  to  produce,  but  would  at  least 
make  it  incumbent  on  him  to  weigh  Avell  his  case  before 
venturing  to  .disj^ute  the  authority  of  such  a  work.  These 
definitions  have  been  weighed,  however,  not  by  Baptists  so 
much  as  by  independent  critics  and  by  the  authors  of  the 
Lexicon  themselves — found  wanting,  and  the  senses  thus 
attached  to  the  word  abandoned  and  expunged  as  untena- 
ble ^dthin  a  year  and  a  half  of  their  first  publication. 

The  work  itself  was  reviewed  in  the  "  London  Quarterly," 
and  considered  justly,  as  not  indeed  without  its  faults,  but 
very  far  before  all  other  Greek  Lexicons  extant.  "  A  great 
many"  of  the  first  scholars  suggested  "  corrections,"  how- 
ever, which  were  made  in  the  second  edition. 

Li  the  mean  time  Professor  Drisler  was  bringing  out  an 
edition  of  it  in  this  country  ^^-ith  Ms  o^^ii  "  corrections  and 
additions."  Shortly  after  this  was  pubUshed,  the  Professor 
of  ancient  languages  in  the  University  of  Louisiana,  on 
comjiaring  Professor  Drisler's  edition  ^^'ith  a  copy  of  the 
second  pubHshed  at  Oxford,  was  surj^rised  to  find,  that  the 
literal  senses  of  the  term  ^unil^u)^  not  imjilying  immersion 
(unless  "bathe"  be  an  exception),  which  were  m  the  Amer- 
ican, were  7iot  to  be  found  in  the  London  copy.  Public 
attention  bemg  called  to  this  fact,  and  the  American  editor 
having  been  blamed  in  some  quarters  for  makmg  so  im- 
portant an  interpolation  without  avowing  it,  he  defended 
himself  by  showing  that  the  meanings  to  "  steep^'"'  "  to  ?^e^," 
"  to  ponr  upon;''  "  to  drench^''  though  quietly  dashed  out 
by  Liddell  and  Scott  from  their  second  edition,  were  all  in 
the  first ;  this  suppression  being  a  part  of  those  "  correc- 
tions" which  the  Lexicon  had  undergone  through  the  sug- 
gestions and  co-operation  of  then-  many  Mends.     Another 


EDITIONS     COMPARED.  179 

edition  of  the  American  work  being  called  for,  it  has  been 
brought  out  by  Professor  Drisler.  Among  his  own  addi- 
tions and  corrections  he  has  not  esteemed  it  fitting  to  add 
any  thmg  to  the  second  English  edition  in  regard  to  this 
word,  but  followed  it  and  loithdrawn  all  the  senses  which 
the  Oxford  editors  had  retracted. 

The  effect  of  all  this  in  deciding  the  meanmg  of  the  term 
§anjic,o)  as  a  classic  Greek  word,  is  most  important.  If  a 
single  instance  could  ha\n3  been  produced  from  the  re- 
searches of  Passow,  or  of  any  j^receding  lexicograj)her,  or 
from  a  most  extensive  exanimation  of  all  the  important 
passages  of  Greek  literature  beai'ing  upon  it,  in  the  course 
of  a  learned  controversy  of  two  hundred  years,  these  mean- 
ings never  Avould  have  been  retracted  by  men  who  are  daily 
in  the  habit  of  sprinkling  infants.  Let  any  one  place  side 
by  side  the  definitions  of  the  two  editions. 


FIRST    EDITION'. 


SECOND    EDITION. 


BaTTTil^u,  1.  To  dip  repeatedly,  dip 
under,  middle  voice,  to  lathe;  hence 
to  steep,  wet.  to  pour  upon,  drench; 
2.  To  dip  a  vessel,  draw  water ;   3.    baptize. — New  Testament, 
To  baptize. — ^New  Testament. 


BaTr«;"w,  1.  To  dip  repeatedly ;  of 
ships,  to  sink  them,  passive  voice, 
to  bathe;  2.   To  draw  water ;  3.    To 


It  is  true  that  the  definition  "  bathe,"  is  still  retamed, 
and  as  we  sometimes  use  this  word  m  the  sense  of  to  soak 
or  to  steep  copiously  loith  a  fluid  as  well  as  in  it,  this 
might  seem  to  leave  the  sense  somewhat  ambiguous.  If 
so  intended  it  would  lessen  the  value  of  the  dictionary, 
but  in  fixct,  the  obliteration  of  the  senses  to  sfeej),  loet,  jyoicr 
upon.,  drench,  is  a  sufticient  admission  that  the  word  can  not 
once  be  shown  to  have  the  sense  of  bathmg  with  a  fluid,  as 
distinct  fii-om  being  immersed  in  it. 


180  LIDDELL     AXD     SCOTT. 

The  second  signification,  "  to  draw  water^''  is  to  "  fill  by 
dipping  in,"  and  thus  to  draw,  see  Liddell  and  Scott,  ^drrrca. 
It  is  simply  an  elhptical  mode  of  expression,  Aristotle* 
gives  it  more  explicitly  thus,  "  One  must  dip  ^aipai  {i.  e.^ 
the  bucket),  and  then  draw  it  ?</:>."  This  sense  of  ^dnju) 
and  §u7iiiz(x)  has  been  elaborately  considered  by  Professor 
Stuart,  who  gives  his  views  of  the  result  thus,  "  The  verb 
^uTiTU)  only  is  employed  in  order  to  convey  the  meaning  t( 
dip  Old,  to  dip  up  by  plunging  a  vessel  into  a  liquid,  and 
drawing  it  up."  ^ 

Suffice  it,  then,  that  in  the  whole  field  of  classic  Greek 
the  embodied  learning  of  the  age  is  not  able  to  produce 
a  single  case  which  these  respectable  authors  will  ven- 
ture to  ofler  as  proof  that  ^amlLfa  is  ever  used  for  any 
thing  distinctly  other  than  immersion.  If  it  had  not 
been  first  of  all  publicly  claimed  by  Pedobaptists  (but  too 
CAidently  to  favor  their  own  theological  \dews),  and  then  as 
publicly,  from  a  decent  sense  of  what  is  due  to  the  scholar- 
ship of  the  age,  withdra's\Ti  both  in  England  and  America, 
this  result  would  not  have  been  so  marked.  But  this  claim 
to  a  right  in  the  word  having  been  advanced,  and  then  re- 
tracted, is  the  clearest  possible  eA'idence  that  it  can  not  be 
sustained  by  proof,  even  in  the  judgment  of  scholars  the 
most  competent  to  settle  such  a  matter  among  Pedobaptists 
themselves.  Thus  all  researches  of  English,  German,  and 
American  linguists,  have  not  been  able  to  shake  this  result, 
established  by  Gale  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  but  so 
often  caviled  at  and  denied  by  partisan  clamors  as  to  be 
rarely  recognized  as  a  settled  philological  fact. 

It  is  true,  indeed,  that  this  lexicon  mentions  three  other 
uses  of  the  word  ^amlloj,  but  they  are  given  in  the  first 
1  Quffist.  Mechan.  c.  27.  '  Page  301. 


PKOFESSOR    STUART.  181 

edition  as  metaphorical  phrases,  not  proper  senses  of  the 
term,  as  idioms,  in  fact.  Thus  Plato,'  "  I  am  one  of  those 
who  were  soaked  in  tcine  {Bs3a:riia^ifotv')  yesterday,"  So 
the  authors  of  the  lexicon  render  it.  Professor  Stuart  brings 
the  same  passage  forward  as  an  illustration  of  the  figurative 
use  of  ^unxii^oy  in  the  sense  of  "  overiohehnP  We  have  the 
same  figure  when  we  speak  of  a  man  being  "*%'?*  wine^'' 
meaning  that  his  senses  are  metaphorically  drowned  in  what 
he  has  drank.  '•'•Head  over  ears  in  debt"  and  "  drotoned^ 
i.  e.,  with  questions,"  are  the  only  other  figm-ative  senses  of 
the  term  they  give  in  either  edition.  These  can  only  be 
understood  as  referring  to  the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  ^.  e., 
inimersioJi.  We  have  in  English  just  the  same  figures,  and 
speak  of  a  man  as  immersed  in  cares,  or  in  debts,  in  study, 
or  in  business,  or  of  a  city  as  plunged  in  sleej),  or  by  sudden 
attack,  into  confusion  and  distress.^  In  fact,  we  now  use  the 
word  immerse  figuratively  just  in  those  cases  where  a 
Greek  would  have  used  the  term  §ixmtt,(x).  This  does  not 
misettle,  but  rather  establish  the  literal  meaning  of  the  En- 
ghsh  word.  Thus  even  the  metaphorical  use  always  con- 
firms the  literal  signification  of  ^uniirw^  and  is  used  on  pur- 
pose to  unply  the  largest  possiNe  ajy)licaiion  of  a  supposed 
fluid  that  the  nature  of  the  case  will  admit.  Such,  then, 
are  the  established  results  at  the  present  day  of  all  sound 
critical  mquiries  as  to  the  classical  meaning  of  ^omil'Qo)^  the 
same  substantially  as  those  to  which  we  have  seen  that 
Professor  Stuart  arrived,  after  elaborate  investigation,  when 
he  conceded  that  in  classic  literature  he  could  find  proof 
but  of  these  two  senses  of  the  term  in  question : 

1.  To  dip^  p>lunge^  or  immerse. 

2.  To  overiohehn,  literally  and  figuratively. 

'  Conv.  ne.  '  See  Jos.  B.  J.  4,  3,  3, 


182  THE     SYNECDOCHE. 

The  only  difference  is  that  the  later  authorities  do  not  sub- 
stantiate the  second  of  these  two  senses  as  any  part  of  the 
literal  or  figxirative  meaning  of  the  word. 

Professor  Robinson,  in  the  last  edition  of  his  lexicon,  gives 
the  sense  thus :  "  to  dip  in,^''  "  to  sitik,^''  "  to  immerse.^''  He 
says :  "  It  is  spoken  of  ships'  gaUeys,  etc.,  of  horses  sinking 
in  a  marsh,  or  jjartially,  to  the  breast ;"  adding,  "  in  Greek 
writers,  as  above  exhibited,  fi'om  Plato  onward,  (iumlZ^M  is 
every  where  to  smk,  to  immerse,  to  overwhelm,  either  wholly 
or  partially.''''  As  he  alone  speaks  of  this  partial  immersion  in 
this  term,  a  little  explanation  of  the  laws  of  language  may 
be  necessary  to  reconcile  all  the  statements.  If  a  man  says 
that  he  has  dipped  his  finger  in  water,  it  is  true  that  he  only 
professes  partially  to  have  immersed  himself^  but  as  he 
wholly  immersed  the  finger,  it  would  not  be  fair  on  this  ac- 
coimt  to  say  that  "  c?^}->"  signified  "  to  immerse  whoUy  or 
partially.^ 

Besides  that,  however,  there  is  di  figure  of  spteech  to  which 
all  words  are  subject  by  which  a  part  is  put  for  the  whole, 
and  the  whole  for  the  part.  It  is  treated  of  in  every  Rhetoric 
under  the  head  of  Synecdoche.''  Our  words  dip,  sink,  im- 
merse, are,  however,  quite  as  subject  to  this  figurative  use 
as  §anTii^(t).  If,  for  instance,  a  man  told  us  that  his  horse, 
having  got  off  the  causeway,  had  siinic  in  the  marsh,  it 
would  have  been  no  contradiction  if  he  asked  assistance 
directly  after  to  get  him  out,  as  his  head  and  neck  were  still 
above  the  sm-face.  We  daily  speak  of  hurying  a  man,  mean- 
ing only  a  pai"t  of  the  man,  his  body,  not  his  soul,  SaUors 
are  not  the  less  said  to  dip  their  oars  into  the  water  in  row- 
ing because  they  keep  the  handles  out.     Yet  no  one  sup- 

'  See  Leviticus,  iv.  6,  Deuteronomy,  xxxiiL  24,  where,  however,  /Sanro 
is  used.  2  See  Campbell's  Rhetoric,  pp.  322,  332.     Harper. 


NEW    TESTAMENT    USE.  183 

poses  these  Jlffurative  uses  to  disturb  the  literal  or  proper 
significations  of  the  verbs  "  to  buri/,^^  or  "  to  si;«A-,"  or  "  to 
dip:' 

Thus  is  it  abundantly  established  that  ^umiQw  means  in 
classic  Greek  to  dip^  to  sink,  to  immerse,  and  nothing  else. 

(b.)  New  Testament  use  o/ ^ccriTf;o). 

The  only  point  now  left  is  whether,  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, the  term  §anilt,o)  possesses  some  new  meaning  or 
meanings  not  figurative,  and  difierent  from  aU  the  classic 
usage  in  regard  to  it.  This  was  the  ground  taken  by  Pro- 
fessor Stuart,  in  which  he  has  been  followed  by  Professor 
Robmson,  in  his  lexicon  of  the  New  Testament.  He  gives 
the  classical  signification  much  as  LiddeU  and  Scott,  "  to  dip 
in,  to  sink,  to  itnmerse,  to  dij?  in  a  vessel,  to  draw  water." 
But  in  the  New  Testament  he  contends  that  it  has  quite 
distinct  senses;  and  means,  "1.  To  loash,  to  lave,  to 
cleanse  by  washing,  mid.  and  pass.  aor.  1  m  mid.  sense,  to 
wash  one''s  self,  i.  e.,  one's  hands  or  person,  to  perforin  ablu- 
tion. 2.  To  baptize,  to  administer  tJie  rite  of  baptism,  either 
that  of  John  or  of  Christ.  Pass,  and  mid.  to  be  baptized,  or 
to  cause  one's  self  to  be  baptized,  i.  e.,  generally  to  receive 
baptism." 

In  all  this  he  takes  up  the  positions  of  Professor  Stuart, 
defending  them  -with,  perhaps,  more  point,  and  having  the 
advantage  of  going  over  the  ground  last. 

Professor  Stuart  complains  that  he  is  "  unable  to  find  any 
thing  in  the  New  Testament  which  appears  to  settle  whether 
the  mode  of  baptism  is  determined  by  the  sacred  writers," 
although  he  is  "  quite  ready  to  concede"  that  he  finds  no 
cases  "  Avhich  seem  absolutely  to  determine  that  immersion 
was  not  practiced."     Baptists,  therefore,  consider  that  he 


184  THE    QUESTION     NARROWED. 

has  quite  mistaken,  xohere  lies  the  burden  of  proof,  that  the 
New  Testament  was  not  wi'itten  to  settle  the  signification 
of  the  word  baptize.  But  the  word  baptize  was  adopted 
into  the  ISTew  Testament  because  well  understood  to  settle 
the  nature  of  the  command.  It  is  not,  therefore,  necessary, 
in  order  to  establish  the  meaning,  that  we  hunt  up  confirm- 
ations in  each  case.  But  to  unsettle  it  a  drfferent  usage  of 
the  word,  in  each  case,  must  be  clearly  proved. 

The  classical  sense  of  the  Greek  term,  which  always  im- 
plies immersion,  was  the  settled  and  estabhshed  meaning 
hundreds  of  years  before  the  New  Testament  was  wi'itten. 
The  sense  of  ^anxi'Qfa  is  not,  and  has  no  right  to  be,  like 
a  piece  of  blank  paper  to  the  scholar  when  he  first  takes  up 
a  Greek  Testament,  it  was  not  so  to  those  who  wi-ote  it. 
The  burden  of  proof,  then,  lies  on  those  who  maintain  that  it 
is  used  m  some  special  signification. 

And  this  narrows  down  the  whole  question  about  the 
meaning  of  this  long-disputed  term  to  a  point  where  any 
plain  English  reader  of  the  Bible  can,  with  a  Uttle  help  very 
easily  obtamed,  settle  it  for  himself  'odth  as  much  certainty 
as  the  profoimdest  scholar.  The  question  is  precisely  this : 
Supposing  that  in  every  case  where  the  Greek  word  ^uml'Qfa 
occurs,  it  had  been  translated  immerse,  are  there  any  cir- 
cumstances connected  with  the  biblicaP  use  of  the  term 
sufficient  to  alter  the  sense  of  the  English  word  immerse,  so 
that,  instead  of  understanding  it  as  meaning  "  to  dip,"  we 
should  have  to  regard  it  as  signifying  "  to  wash,"  "  to  lave," 
"  to  cleanse  by  washmg,"  "  to  perform  ablution."  This  is 
clearly  the  point  at  issue. 

Professor  Robinson's  argument  amounts  substantially  to 

1  I  include  under  the  term  biblical  here  the  Septuagint  version  of  the 
Old  Testament  and  the  Apocrypha,  as  well  as  the  New  Testament. 


PEOFESSOE     EOBINSON.  185 

this.  He  says :  "  In  Hellenistic  usage,  anu  especially  in 
reference  to  the  rite  of  baptism,  ^umi^u)  would  seem  to  have 
expressed  not  always  simply  immersion,  but  the  more  gen- 
eral idea  of  ablution  or  affusion.''''  It  is  proper  to  remark, 
however,  that  in  establishing  this  new  and  more  general 
sense  oi  §uniL'c,w,  neither  Philo  nor  Josephus  assist  Professor 
Robinson,  though  both  of  them  Jews,  and  about  cotem- 
poraries  with  Christ  and  his  Apostles.  On  the  contrary, 
they  always  use  ^anil^w  as  synonymous  with  immersion  as 
when  Josephus,  speaking  of  Herod  murdering  Aristobulus, 
says  that  he  was  '"'■  phmgecl'''  in  a  diving-bath  until  he  was 
drowned,  using  ^uml^oj.  The  command  to  baptize,  there- 
fore, if  not  a  command  to  immerse,  was  recorded  in  a  Greek 
word,  of  which  two  of  the  most  celebrated  Greek  Jews  of 
that  day  manifest  no  knowledge,  and  the  proof  of  which 
has  to  be  made  out  from  the  Bible  alone. 

1.  Professor  Robinson's  '■'■  especiaP''  argument  to  establish 
this  new  meaning,  is  from  the  circnmstances  attending 
"  the  rite  of  baptism."  Of  this  all  can  haj^pily  judge  who 
consider  those  circumstances. 

He  admits  that  Jesus  was  plunged  "  ^/^to"  the  Jordan  at 
his  own  baptism,  and  that  the  vast  multitude  si3oken  of  in 
Matthew,  iii.  6  were  baptized  "wi"  water,  gomg  even 
further  m  this  respect  than  Professor  Stuart,  who,  however, 
had  declared :  "  For  myself,  then,  I  cheerfully  admit  that 
§uniic,M  m  the  New  Testament,  when  appHed  to  the  rite 
of  baptism,  does  in  all  probabihty  mvolve  the  idea  that  this 
rite  was  usually  performed  by  immersion,  but  not  always." ' 

Professor  Robinson  would  probably  admit  all  this ;  uideed 
he  has  himself  sho^vn  further  that,  in  all  cases  wliere  any 
prepositions  are  used  in  connection  with  the  element  of  this 
'  Page  362. 


186  PROFESSOR     ROEIXSON. 

rite,  they  show  it  to  have  been  "  ?Vi"  water;'  so  that  the 
case  is  narrowed  down  still  further.  We  have  a  Greek 
verb  that  always  implies  immersion  out  of  the  Bible,  which 
usually  involves  that  idea  even  in  speaking  of  the  rite  of 
baptism  itself  in  the  New  Testament,  and  that,  according 
to  Professor  Stuart,  is  never  used  in  cases  "  which  seem  ab- 
solutely to  determine  that  unmersion  was  not  practiced." " 
And  yet  Professor  Robhison  has  in  fact  ventured  entirely 
to  expunge  from  his  definition  of  Samic^o}^  when  it  is  used 
in  the  New  Testament,  the  established  and  distinctive 
character  of  the  word,  and  substituted  others  in  its  place, 
explaming  in  a  "  note"  at  the  end  that  he  only  intends  to 
say,  the  word  j?«rTT/^w  "  would  seem  not  always  to  have  ex- 
pressed simply  unmersion,  in  Hellenistic  usage,  and  espe- 
cially in  reference  to  the  rite  of  baptism."  If  by  divine 
authority  the  word  "  immerse"  were  placed  in  our  Enghsh 
Bibles  wherever  ^amiloi  occm-s  in  the  oi'iginal  New  Testa- 
ment, the  Septuagmt,  and  the  Apocry^jha,  w^ould  it  be  right 
for  a  missionary  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  in  preparing  an 
Enghsh  New  Testament  Lexicon,  to  represent  the  significa- 
tion of  imm.erse,  as  Dr  Robinson  has  given  that  of  this 
term  ?  What  should  we  think  if  he  first  taught  the 
heathen  that  in  aU  other  English  hterature  it  signified  "  to 
plunge  into  some  fluid,"  but  that  in  the  JSfeio  Testament  it 
meant,  "  1.  To  wash,  to  lave,  to  cleanse,  by  washing  to  per- 
form ablution  ;  2.  To  baptize"  adding,  in  a  mere  note, 
that  he  only  mtended  to  say  that  although  "  immerse"  was 
the  word  used  by  divine  authority,  it  would  seem  not 
always  simply  to  dip,  but  "  especially  in  reference  to 
the  rite  of  baptism,"  to  have   the   more  general  idea  of 

*  I  mean  after  the  verb  iSairn^G),  and  governing  the  element.    ^  P.  337. 


LUKE,  XI.  38.  187 

ablution  or  affusion.  This  is  precisely  what  Professor 
Robinson  has  done. 

The  reader  has  already  in  §  III.  examined  the  progress 
of  opinion  as  to  all  the  circumstances  attending  the  rite 
of  baptism  in  the  Xew  Testament,  and  has  seen  that  in 
no  mstance  do  they  prove  the  least  exception  to  immersion, 
but  afford  an  overwhelming  amount  of  proof  that  in  all 
cases  the  primitive  converts  were  "buried"  m  the  waters  of 
baptism.     Rom.  vi.  4. 

Now  while  ^anjllbi  and  its  derivatives  occur  about  one 
hundred  and  thirty  times  in  the  New  Testament,  there  are 
only  three  or  four  occasions  in  which  it  does  not  either 
literally  or  figuratively  refer  to  the  rite  of  baptism.  These 
are  Mark,  vii.  4,  8  ;  Luke,  xi.  38  ;  Heb.  ix.  10.  But  Professor 
Stuart  has  adinitted  that  there  is  nothing  wliich  seems  ab- 
solutely to  determine  that  immersion  was  not  practiced  even 
here.  So  that  there  is  not  one  of  these  cases  in  which,  if  the 
reader  should  translate  this  term  by  some  word  impljdng 
immersion,  he  would  not  have  a  perfectly  intelligible  mean- 
ing, and  one  supported,  too,  by  many  of  the  highest  critical 
authorities.  These  cases  are  therefore  at  once  too  doubtful 
and  too  few  to  estabUsh  a  new  sense  upon,  much  less  to 
overturn  the  hundred  and  thirty  others,  backed  by  the 
whole  classic  usage,  so  as  to  shake  the  meanmg  of  a  pubUc 
command. 

But  Professor  Robinson  refers  us  to  Luke,  xi.  38,  which 
might  be  literally  rendered,  "  The  Pharisee  wondered  be- 
cause he  did  not  first  immerse  himself  {i^aniladii)  before 
dinner."  The  Syriac  here  uses  the  same  word  as  for  the 
rite  of  baptism.  Accordmg  to  it,  the  host  "  was  surprised 
that  he  did  not  previously  baptize."  Before  introducing  a 
new  sense  like  "  wasA,"  instead  of  "  immerse,"  it  might  be 


1P8  LUKE,    51.    38, 

well  to  consider  if  allusion  was  not  had  to  the  use  of  the 
bath,  so  customary  before  dinner,  "  Those  who  had  been 
invited  to  a  feast  bathed  themselves  before  they  went," 
says  Campbell,  in  his  Notes  on  John,  xiii.  10.  But  our  Sa- 
viour seems  to  have  been  invited  while  publicly  teaching  in 
the  neighborhood,  and  gouig  in,  he  reclined  at  once  at  the 
table  ready  for  the  meal.  The  host  had  probably  expected 
that  he  would  have  iised  the  bath  at  his  hoiase,  and  was 
surprised,  especially  coming  from  the  dust  and  the  heated 
crowd  among  whom  he  had  been  laboring. 

But  it  must  also  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  man  is  ex- 
pressly mentioned  as  a  Pharisee,  on  purpose  evidently  to 
account  in  part  for  his  surprise,  a  surprise  purposely  given 
to  enable  Christ  to  reprove  the  Pharisaic  observances  as  to 
ceremonial  purity.  "  Xow  do  ye  Pharisees  make  clean  the 
outside  of  the  cup,"  etc. 

By  the  Mosaic  law,  whoever  touched  a  dead  body  was 
imclean,  (even  the  dead  body  of  a  mouse,)  or  a  grave,  or  the 
bone  of  a  man ;  and  whoever  touched  one  who  was  unclean, 
or  an  unclean  garment  or  article  of  furniture,  also  became 
unclean.  The  law  for  all  such  was  that  they  should  "  'bathe 
themselves  in  water. ''''  Lev.  xv.  5-18;  Nimib.  xix.  18,  19. 
Even  the  High  Priest  offermg  the  yearly  atonement  was 
subjected  to  this  rule.  How  carefully  the  Pharisees  regard- 
ed this  as  enjoining  an  immersion  of  the  whole  body,  we 
shall  see.  But  in  addition  to  the  Mosaic  law,  they  had  also 
added  certain  cases  of  constructive.,  or  probable  uncleanness. 
If  a  man  had  been  to  the  inarket-place.,  where  flesh  was  on 
every  side,  or  any  place  of  public  resort,  where  ceremonially 
unclean  persons  (Gentiles,  for  instance)  must  have  abound- 
ed, special  care  was  taken  to  i^urify  themselves  on  returning 
liome.     Mark,  vii.  4.     Spencer,  on  the  "Ritual  Laws  of  the 


LUKE,   XI.   38.  189 

Hebrews,"  says,  "  Some  of  the  Jews,  ambitious  for  the  credit 
of  superior  purity,  frequently  immersed  their  whole  persons 
in  water,  the  greater  part,  however,  following  a  milder  dis- 
cipline, frequently  washed  only  their  hands."  Ilhan '  says, 
"  Those  who  had  departed  from  the  house  washed  in  a  bath, 
or  at  least  immersed  their  hands  in  water  with  the  fingers 
distended."  Grotius  on  Mark,  vii.  4,  says,  "  They  cleansed 
themselves  more  carefully  from  defilement  contracted  at  the 
market,  by  not  only  washing  their  hands,  but  even  by  im- 
mersing their  bodies."  Vatabulus,  on  the  same  passage, 
says,  "  They  bathed  their  whole  persons."  ^ 

It  seems,  then,  that  there  were  two  customs — ^the  stricter 
Pharisees,  after  going  into  a  promiscuous  assembly,  would 
have  bathed  themselves  before  eating.  How  particular  they 
were,  may  be  gathered  fi'om  what  Maimonides  says,  as 
quoted  by  Dr.  Lightfoot,  on  Mark,  vii.  4 :  "  Wherever  in 
the  laAV  washing  of  the  body  or  garments  is  mentioned,  it 
means  nothing  else  than  the  washing  of  the  whole  body. 
For  if  any  wash  himself  aU  over  except  the  top  of  his  little 
finger,  he  is  stiU  in  his  imcleanness." 

This  seems  by  our  Saviour's  remark  to  have  been  one  of 
the  stricter  Pharisees.  He  had  conceived  of  our  Lord 
as  a  person  of  extraordinary  purity  and  holiness,  hence 
his  surprise  would  be  natural  at  his  reclinmg  for  dinner 
after  mixing  with  the  crowd,  without  first  bathing  him- 
self 

This  passage  is  certamly  far  enough  from  favoring,  much 
less  requiring,  the  creation  of  a  new  sense  for  ^amiXfii.  Be- 
fore doing  so,  it  would  be  our  duty  to  regard  this  as  an  in- 

>  Section  3  20. 

"  For  the  above  extracts,  I  am  chiefly  indebted  to  Professor  Ripley's 
excellent  Reply  to  Professor  Stuart. 


190  MAEK,    VII.    2,  3. 

stance  of  the  rhetorical  figure  of  which  we  have  before 
spoken,  in  which  the  whole  is  sometimes  put  for  a  part,  to 
save  detail.  We  daily  speak  of  a  man  washing  himself^ 
where  we  mean  only  that  he  has  washed  his  face,  or  even 
his  hands.  This  does  not  alter  the  meaning  of  the  verb 
wash  /  it  is  only  a  figurative  use  of  "  himself"  for  "  his 
hands,"  So  here,  if  the  surprise  of  the  Pharisee  was  only 
occasioned  by  the  SaA-iour  not  dipping  his  hands  in  water 
— a  still  more  frequent  custom  with  all  the  Jews — the  lite- 
ral meaning  of  ^nmllo  would  remain  quite  imchanged. 
The  same  figure  of  speech  would  have  to  be  supposed  by 
whatever  word  was  rendered. 

But  Professor  Robinson  tells  us  to  "  comj^are  the  like 
circumstances  in  Mark,  vii.  2,  3,"  where  he  considers  that 
vlnrofiai  is  used  spionjinously  with  ^anji^o). 

The  whole  of  this  supposition,  however,  Dr.  Campbell 
has  shown  most  clearly  to  arise  from  the  want  of  a  sufficient 
discrimination,  where  a  contrast  is  intended.  "  For  illus- 
trating this  passage,"  he  says,  in  the  note  on  this  text, 
"  let  it  be  observed  first,  that  the  two  verbs  rendered 
wash  in  the  EngUsh  translation  are  different  in  the  original. 
The  first  is  vlifwuat^  properly  translated  '■wash/''  the  second 
is  /?«7Ti/^w>'iat,  which  limits  us  to  a  particular  mode  of  wash- 
ing ;  for  ^amltbj  denotes  '  to  plunge,'  '  to  dip.'  " 

He  translates  the  passage  in  question  thus  :  "  The  Phari- 
sees, and  indeed  all  the  Jews  who  observe  the  tradition  of 
the  elders,  eat  not  untU  they  have  washed  their  hands,  by 
pourmg  a  Httle  water  upon  them  [viipoiVTui) ;  and  if  they 
be  come  fi'om  the  market,  by  dij^pmg  them  {^ami'c,o}vtai).'>'> 
"  Nlniei,v^->^  he  says,  "  Hke  the  general  word  to  wash,  in 
EngHsh,  may  be  used  for  ^amiieiv,  to  dip,  because  the 
genus  comprehends  the  species,  but  not  conversely,  ^tn. 


MARK,    VII.    2,  3.  191 

Tl^eir  for  vlmsiv^  the  species  for  the  genns.  By  this  inter- 
pretation, the  words  which,  as  rendered  in  the  common 
version,  are  mimeaning,  appear  both  significant  and  empliat- 
ical,  and  the  contrast  in  the  Greek  is  preserved  in  the  trans- 
lation. The  Vulgate  does  not  confomid  the  two  verbs  as 
the  English  does." 

That  there  is  a  contrast  of  thought  or  a  very  marked 
iistinction  intended  to  be  indicated  by  the  use  of  these  two 
Greek  words  both  rendered  in  English,  "  ?<?tf.9A,"  nearly  all 
translators  and  commentators  have  agreed.  Precisely  what 
that  distinction  is  has  perplexed  many.  The  Syriac  says 
"  The  Pharisees  except  they  carefully  vxish  their  hands,  do 
not  eat ;  and  from  the  market  place  they  do  not  eat  except 
they  'baptize.''''  So  the  Vulgate.  It  is  plain  that  the  kind 
of  washing  here  mdicated  by  ^univja  is  of  a  much  more 
thorough  character  than  by  v in  to>.  Bloomtield  admits  that  in 
the  latter  case  it  refers  to  the  washmg  of  their  bodies  in 
opposition  to  xhat  of  their  hands,  though  he  will  not  allow 
that  this  was  by  immersion.  But  certainly  to  bathe  as  the 
easiest  way  of  washmg  the  whole  body,  especially  in  those 
Eastern  coiuitries,  would  be  the  probable  sense  even  apart 
from  the  meanmg  of  the  word  itself  The  most  literal  ren- 
dering of  this  passage  wovild  be  "  The  Pharisees  except  they 
wash  their  hands,  eat  not.  And  when  they  come  from  the 
market,  except  they  immerse,  they  eat  not,"  and  the  only 
question"  ought  to  be  whether  we  are  to  suppose  the  words 
"  their  handd"  are  left  to  be  understood  as  repeated  after 
the  word  "  immerse"  or  not.  The  sole  objection  to  this  is 
that  of  Kumoel  and  others  who  do  not  find  what  they 
imagine  sufficient  proof  of  such  a  general  custom  as  com- 
plete immersion,  but  think  with  Campbell  that  the  dipping 
was  conlined  to  the  hands.     We  have,  however,  already 


192  MARK,    VII.     4. 

seen  the  ctxstoms  on  this  point  from  which  it  would  appear 
that  the  laxer  Jews  and  those  who  went  but  a  little  way, 
merely  immersed  their  hands,  but  the  stricter  sort  of  Phar- 
isees, especially  when  they  went  into  the  marJcets  or  promis- 
cuous crowds  where  there  was  danger  of  defilement  unless 
they  "washed  in  a  bath,"  i.  e.,  immersed  themselves  in 
watei",  did  not  eat.  But  no  distinct  object  of  the  verb 
being  expressed,  we  might  suppose  "their  hands,"  the 
object  of  viipwvrai^  to  be  here  also  the  understood  object  of 
§amiio)vjal.  What  is  Certain  is  all  that  is  necessary.  The 
distinction  between  the  two  modes  of  ablution  is  here 
strongly  marked  by  the  terms  used.  The  same  distinction 
is  accm-ately  laid  down  in  the  Mishna.  The  Jews,  it  is  clear, 
had  two  distinct  modes  of  washing  for  purification,  one  by 
pouring,  and  the  other  by  immersion.  They  were  dis- 
cussed in  separate  Treatises.  The  Treatise  Yadaim  being 
apparently  devoted  exclusively  to  the  ablution  of  the  hands 
by  pouring  so  much  water  upon  them,  and  several  other 
Treatises  to  immersion^  So  far,  therefore,  from  this  pas- 
sage being  favorable  to  a  more  general  sense  to  the  term 
§ami'Cfi)^  whichever  way  it  is  construed,  it  demonstrates  a 
very  specific  use  of  the  word,  implies  immersion  most 
strongly,  and  is  put  in  contrast  with  vimw,  to  tca^h. 

The  reader  ^ill  probably  be  surprised  to  learn  that  upon 
two  cases  like  these,  where  alone  in  the  Xew  Testament  this 
verb  occurs  apart  from  the  rite  of  baptism.  Dr.  Robin- 
son has  undertaken  to  erase  from  his  definitions  the  specific 
sense  of  "  immerse"  from  ^nniiQn)  wherever  it  occurs  in  this 
portion  of  holy  writ.  It  is  true,  however,  we  have  three 
instances  of  the  noun,  now  to  be  considered. 

Mark,  A'ii.  4  and  8,  may  seem,  perhaps,  the  strongest  to 
•  See  "  Eighteen  Treat,  from  the  Mishna,"  by  Dr.  Raphall,  Lond.,  p.  35Y. 


MARK,     VII.     4.  193 

the  mere  English  reader.  "  And  many  other  thuigs  there 
he  which  they  have  received  to  hold  as  the  washing 
(SnTniouov;)  of  cups,  and  pots,  and  brazen  vessels,  and  of 
tables,"  etc.     So  our  English  version  reads. 

Here  again  the  Syriac  has  it  the  haptism  of  cups,  etc. 
And  so  Campbell  renders  it,  because  this  baj)tism  of  them 
was  of  a  religious  and  ceremonial  character ;  a  Pharisaic 
observance  added  to  the  Mosaic  law.  The  reader  will 
easily  find  proofs  of  two  distinct  kinds  of  religious  purifica- 
tion, both  for  persons  and  things,  one  was  by  pouring 
water  over  the  object,  and  the  other  by  immersion  in  water. 
Both  are  laid  down  vdt\\  great  exactness  in  the  Mishna. 
The  first  as  we  have  seen  might  be  represented  by  'tTrrw,  the 
second  most  appropriately  by  BamiQo).  The  question  here 
is  whether  there  is  any  thing  to  prove  the  more  thorough 
ablution  not  mtended,  so  that  we  must  alter  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word  to  accommodate  the  sense,  A  little  con- 
sideration will  show  that  the  proof  is  all  the  other  way. 

So  far  as  the  baptism  of  cups,  and  pots,  and  brazen  ves- 
sels are  concerned,  there  can  at  least  be  no  difliculty  in  sup- 
posing immersion.  Even  the  law  of  Moses  had  prescribed 
that  the  dead  body  of  any  animal  or  creeping  thing  touch- 
mg  any  vessel  or  garment,  or  skin,  or  sack,  it  must  be  dipped 
in  water  before  it  would  be  clean,  and  a  vessel  in  which  any 
work  had  been  done  must  be  immersed  in  like  manner. 
Lev.  xi.  32. 

But  it  was  some  washing  much  more  mconvenient  and 
less  foimded  on  the  nature  of  things  than  all  this,  that  the 
Evangelist  here  charges  on  the  Phaiisees.' 

^  Dr.  Gill,  in  his  commentary  on  this  passage,  has  shown  how  exact- 
ing were  the  Pharisees  in  requiring  all  vessels  to  be  covered  with  water 
for  constructive  uncleanness. 

9 


194  HEBREWS,     IX.     10. 

Tlie  word  rendered  "  tables'''  means  strictly  couches 
(xA/juj),  and  it  has  been  asked,  could  the  Jews  have  been 
in  the  habit  of  immersing  whole  couches  ?  But  this  diffi- 
culty soon  vanishes  fi-om  an  oriental  mind. 

1.  Let  it  be  observed  that  these  couches  were  used  in- 
stead of  chairs  to  recline  upon  while  eating ;  and  the  food 
and  gravy  constantly  spilled  on  them  woiild  render  them 
frequently  unclean,  literally  and  ceremonially. 

2.  The  Jews  were  in  the  habit  of  distinguishmg  between 
the  couch  itself  and  the  bedstead,^  or  elevated  part  of  the 
floor,  as  it  generally  was,  on  which  the  couch  proper  was 
laid.  In  Persia,  to  this  day,  this  latter  consists  at  times 
only  of  "  tioo  cotton  qidlts-''  easily  sjiread.'^  Tliis  accoimts 
for  the  couch  being  so  easily  carried  by  one  who  had  been 
paralytic.^  These  would  often  need  dipping  in  water  to  be 
ceremonially  clean  if  animal  matter  touched  them, 

3.  The  object  of  the  wi-iter  was  to  set  forth  the  absurd 
lengths  to  which  the  Pharisees  enjomed  these  cleansings? 
and  it  has  been  shown  by  Dr.  Gill  that  they  required  the 
whole  to  be  cleansed  by  immersion  when  they  had  been, 
defiled ;  nothing,  therefore,  can  well  be  more  certain  than 
that  superfluous  immersions  of  this  kind  were  specifically 
intended ;  for  the  object  of  the  ^vi-iter  would  be  best  ac- 
complished by  exhibiting  the  fidl  extent  of  their  trouble- 
some requirements. 

Hebrews,  ix.  10,  refei's  doubtless,  to  the  frequent  msti- 
tuted  dippings  in  water,  both  of  persons,  vessels,  clothes, 
and  skins,  ordained  Lev.  xi.  32.  15.  5-18,  etc.,  for  ceremo- 
nial purification.  This  was  the  evident  design  of  the  writ- 
ter ;  i.  e.,  to  show  the  inconveniences  of  the  Jewish  reUg- 
ion  and  its  madaptedness  to  perpetuity  and  universal  ex- 

1  Deut.  iii.  11.         'See  Robinson's  Calmut,  Beds.         ^  Matt.  ix.  6. 


K  A  A  M  A  N" .  1  95 

tension.  The  above  are  the  only  reasons  from  the  New 
Testament  adduced  l3y  Professor  Robinson,  apart  from  the 
rite  of  baptism,  ah-eady  considered,-  for  changing  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word  SuniiCsa.  Closely  and  fairly  examined,  in- 
stead of  altering  the  sense  of  ^aml'c<M^  they  all  tend  directly 
to  confirm  it. 

But  Dr,  R.  pleads  that  there  are  cases  in  the  Apocrypha 
and  Septuagint,  at  least,  where  i9«7rr/>  is  used,  and  in  which 
the  idea  of  immersion  is  inapplicable.  It  is  even  urged  that 
these  are  sufficient  to  establish  a  peculiar  Hellenistic  usage 
and  meaning  of  the  term,  existing  before  theXew  Testament. 

But  it  is  not  pleaded  that  all  these  cases  together  are 
sufficient  to  show  that  the  common  Hellenistic  usage  was 
not  the  same  as  the  classical  meaning  "  immerse."  Indeed 
Professor  Stuart  gives  us  the  primary  and  iisual  meaning  of 
the  word  in  these  writings,  to  plunge^  to  iminerse,  to  dip  in, 
quoting'  "  Naaman  went  down  and  plunged  {i^fxmiauTo) 
seven  times  into  the  river  Jordan,"  as  an  instance.  He 
even  says  that  in  the  "  majority  of  examples"  of  this  verb 
and  §&moi,  that  is  the  sense.  The  exceptional  cases, 
"  which  are  few  in  number,"  "^  are  given.  All  of  these  are 
quite  insufficient  to  disturb  the  sense  of  ^ami%oi,  in  an  ordi- 
nary command,  however  regarded. 

But  Professor  Robinson,  strange  to  say,  less  con«eding 
here  than  Professor  Stuart,  brings  forward  2  Kings,  v.  14, 
to  prove  that  the  term  is  not  used  in  the  specific  sense  of 
'"  imm.erse^''  but  in  the  more  general  one  of  "  loash^''''  quot- 
ing in  proof  verse  10,  where  the  command  under  which  he 
acted  was  given  to  go  and  vmsli  (Aow.))  seven  times  in  Jor- 
dan. Thus  instead  of  l.etting  the  specific  term  explain  the 
more  general  one,  he  wishes  the  more  general  term  to  un- 
•  2  Kings,  V.  14.  *  Page  307. 


196  JUDITH,     XII,     7. 

settle  the  whole  usage  of  the  more  specific.  Is  this  right  ? 
"Wliat  could  not  be  unsettled  on  such  principles  ?  This  is 
the  more  inexcusable,  as  m  his  Hebrew  Lexicon  (Art.  ^trs) 
he  has  given  this  very  passage^  as  an  illustration  of  the 
meanings  "  to  dip,  to  inmaerse,"  translating  it  in  full,  "  and 
dipped  himself  seven  times  in  Jordan." 

But  supposing  ^-ouw  in  the  direction  given  simply  meant 
to  '•'■  icash,''''  then  verse  14  tells  us  specifically  how  this  wash- 
ing Avas  actually  performed,  i.  e.,  by  unmersion.  The  com- 
mand here,  however,  implied  immersion.  For  lovuai  htiuxig 
kv  7(5  ^loQiiuiri  should  be  rendered  "  bathe  thyself  seven 
times  in  Jordan,"  Trench  m  his  "  Spionymes  of  the  Xew 
Testament,"  says  that  Aoiw  "  is  not  so  much  to  '  wash''  as  to 
'  hathe^  and  InvsaBai^  to  bathe  one's  self,'  implies  always  not 
the  bathing  of  a  j^art  of  the  body,  but  of  the  whole,''''  quot- 
ing Hebrews,  x.,  23,  as  an  example.  ISTothing,  therefore, 
can  well  be  more  clear,  than  the  specific  sense  both  of  the 
command,  and  of  ^amicui  here. 

Judith,  xii.  7,  is  adduced  by  Professor  Robinson  as  by 
Professor  Stuart.  The  passage  is  translated  in  King  James' 
version,  Judith  "  went  out  in  the  night  into  the  Valley  of 
Bethulia,  and  tcashed  herself  (^e^aml^sTo)  in  a  fountaui  by 
the  camp."  The  question  here  is,  did  the  writer  intend  to 
say  that  she  bathed  herself  in  the  fountaui,  or  simply  that 
she  washed  herself  tcith  its  water.  The  point  is  not  which 
of  these  circumstances  really  took  place.  Probably  neither 
of  them  did,  for  the  whole  j^assage  is  an  evident  and  most 
improbable  fiction.  Xothing  can  be  more  unlikely  than 
that  a  Jewish  woman  should  have  been  allowed  to  pass  in 
and  out  of  a  camp  besieging  a  Jewish  city,  at  her  o^vn 
pleasure.     Hence  we  may,  if  we  will,  think  it  very  unlikely 

'  2  Kings,  V.  14. 


JUDITH,     XII.     7.  197 

and  indecorous,  that  she  should  immerse  herself.  It  is  not 
so  much  so  as  other  j^arts  of  this  romance,  but  the  trans- 
lator's duty  is  to  put  the  improbable  thing  in  English,  just 
as  it  stands  in  the  story. 

The  object  of  the  writer  is  to  represent  her  as  a  person 
of  rare  piety,  according  to  the  Pharisaic  standard,  but  hy- 
ing in  the  midst  of  a  camp  of  unclean  persons,  and  sur- 
rounded by  ceremonial  defilements.  Hence  this  custom  of 
nightly  bathing  is  mentioned,  the  fountain  being  also  care- 
fully recorded  to  give  plausibility  to  the  narrative,  and  also 
that  it  was  hy  nighty  when  she  would  not  be  observed. 
There  were  often  such  places  at  the  outskirts  of  cities,  with 
proper  and  separate  accommodations  for  men  and  women 
to  bathe.  In  the  sixth  century  conveniences  of  this  kind  at 
the  Pool  of  Siloam  were  found  by  Antonius  the  Martyr. 
Still  it  was  urged  that  this  was  "  in  (e»')  the  camp,"  and  at 
night.  The  utmost  that  can,  however,  be  argued  from  that 
cu'cumstance,  is,  that  it  was  somewhere  probably  ^c^Y/i^V^,  but 
possibly  only  near  the  sjjace  inclosed  by  sentries,  a  circuit 
perhaps  of  miles,  and  in  which  this  seems  to  have  been  a 
secluded  and  solitary  valley.  The  sujjposition  of  a  lone 
woman,  and  perhaps  her  maid,  going  out  and  in  at  night  to 
wash  at  a  fountain,  in  a  camp,  must  have  been  attended 
with  about  as  many  difficulties,  as  to  delicacy  and  safety,  as 
if  we  suppose  her  to  have  bathed.  But  there  is  this  diffi- 
cidty  to  the  former  supposition — it  was  not  cleanliness,  but 
l^eculiar  ceremonial  sanctity,  that  is  here  being  represented, 
and  when  in  verse  19  it  is  expressly  said  that  "  sAe  came  in 
clean'''' — that  is,  ceremonially  clean — there  is  no  room  to 
doubt  that  she  bathed  her  body  in  the  water,  according  to 
Jewish  custom.  Spencer,  in  his  "  Laws  of  the  Hebrews," 
bving-s  this  very  case  forward  to  prove  that  "  the  Jews  when 


198  ECCLESIASTICUS,     XXXIV.    25. 

about  to  perform  their  vows,  sometimes  cleansed  the  whole 
body  in  a  bath."  Living  as  she  was  by  day,  in  the  midst  ot 
the  imclean,  she  could  only  have  made  clean  Pharisaically 
by  immersmg  nightly.  This  supposition  is  necessary  to  the 
'plausibility  of  the  narrative,  and  we  are  not  even  bound  to 
beUeve  m  the  prohability  of  any  part  of  the  story. 

The  only  other  case  adduced  is  Su-ach,  xxxi.  25,  [or  Ec- 
clus  :  xxxiv.  25]  "He  who  is  haptlzed  (5«.Ti/^o/<£»'Of)  from  a 
dead  body,  and  toucheth  it  again,  what  does  he  profit  by 
his  hath  or  bathing,"  tcD  Aout^qj  aviov.  In  Numbers,  xix.  19, 
we  find  that  Avhoever  touched  the  body,  or  even  the  bone  of 
a  man,  was  to  be  unclean  seven  days,  and  as  the  concluding 
ceremony  of  his  purification,  "  to  hathe  himself  in  waterP 

Let  it  be  granted  that  f^i,  the  Hebrew  term  for  "  hathe^"* 
here  might  mean  less  than  immerse.  Yet  followed  as  it  is 
by  !3,  which  here  must  be  rendered  "  in.^''  it  is  clear  wliat  it 
meant  in  the  eyes  of  the  son  of  Sirach.  His  sj^eaking  of 
the  "  bath"  ui  the  same  verse,  makes  it  plain.  And  the  fol- 
lowmg  passage  produced  by  Lightfoot,  m  Matthew,  iii.  6, 
from  Maimonides,  renders  all  these  passages  beyond  further 
dispute.  "  Vf  heresoever  ua  the  law  washing  of  the  body 
or  garments  is  mentioned,  it  means  nothing  else  than  the 
washing  of  the  whole  body.  For  if  any  wash  hnnself  aU 
over,  excej^t  the  very  top  of  his  little  finger,  he  is  still  in  his 
uncleanness."  Lightfoot  on  Mark,  vii.  4,  produces  also 
from  another  Jewish  writer  a  sentence  which  shows  that 
pollution  occasioned  by  the  tou.ch  of  the  dead  was  so  great, 
that  the  person  "  must  x^lunge  his  whole  body." '  The  spe- 
cific sense  is  plain  beyond  doubt,  here. 

*  Ripley,  p.  33.  If  it  were  the  fact,  which  it  is  not,  that  reference  here 
is  had  to  the  custom  of  washing  Uie  whole  of  the  clothes  in  water, 
Bee  Leviticus,  xi. -25-28,  as  well   as  the  immersion   of  the  person,  the 


DIP    A    PERFECT   EC^UIVALEXT.  199 

Thus,  in  fact,  not  a  single  passage  lias  been  adduced,  in 
wliich  less  than  the  primary  idea  of  the  word  "  immersion" 
can  he  accorded  to  it,  ^dthout  positive  detraction  from  the 
meanmg  of  the  origmal,  either  in  the  New  Testament,  the 
Sej^tuagint,  or  the  Apocrypha.^ 

Thus  every  use  of  the  word,  classic  or  Hellenistic,  lit- 
eral or  figurative,  contributes  to  show  that  the  command 
to  haptize  is  a  command  to  immerse^  and  that  the  word 
j?a7rr/ju),  is  nevcT  used  literally  (or  even  figuratively)  with- 
out reference  to  this,  the  radical  idea  of  the  word,  so  that 
our  verb  to  dip  is  its  j^erfect  equivalent. 

etymology  of  &iD  shows  that  it  is  to  xoash  by  treading  the  garments  in  a 
trougli  filled  with  water,  therefore  implying  immersion. 

'  The  fact  to  which  Robinson  alludes  of  the  old  Italic  version  transfer- 
ring baptize  into  the  Latin,  certainly  does  not  show  that  there  was  any 
thing  in  the  method  of  performing  the  rite  which  "  immergd'^  would  not 
properly  indicate  ;  but  simply  that  this  word  having  been  used  first,  had 
become  a  technical  term  in  that  language,  through  the  preaching  of  the 
Apostles,  and  was  thus  naturally  transferred  as  a  thousand  other  such 
words  are.  Tertullian  and  all  the  Latm  fathers  at  least  continually  use 
"  Tingere"  and  '^  Ime^-gere.'"  The  baptismal  fonts  still  found  among  the 
ruins  of  the  most  ancient  Greek  Churches  in  Palestine,  as  at  Tekoa  and 
Gophna,  and  goiiag  back  apparently  to  very  early  times,  are  quite  too  late 
to  affect  this  question.  No  one  pretends  that  they  belong  to  the  first  or 
even  to  the  second  centuries  of  the  Christian  era.  They  have  nothing, 
therefore,  to  do  with  the  question  of  the  alteration  which  he  has  made  of 
the  meaning  of  the  word  fSarcTi^u  in  the  New  Testament.  That  the  gen- 
eral custom  of  the  early  Church  was  immersion  is  too  clear  to  be  doubted ; 
nor  can  a  single  case  be  shown  of  any  thing  else  up  to  a.d.  230  ;  later 
than  this  it  was  in  fierce  dispute  whether  less  than  that  was  valid  bap- 
tism, even  in  cases  of  the  sick  and  dying.  The  fonts  are  beyond  doubt 
too  late  to  weigh  in  this  matter,  but  the  ancient  custom  of  baptistries 
built  separately  from  the  churches  is  decisive  the  other  way,  for  had 
sprinkling  originally  been  the  customary  baptism  none  would  have  thought 
of  erecting  a  house  for  that  purpose. 


200  ILLUSTKATIOX    COMPLETED. 

The  case  is  in  every  way,  therefore,  as  plain  as  that  sup- 
posed at  the  commencement  of  this  chapter/  It  is  in  fact 
'plainer.  To  put  it  fairly,  it  should  be  stated  thus :  The 
commanding  officer  of  a  vessel  tells  one  of  the  hands  to 
"  dip  a  bucket  overboard."  He  pleads  that  the  meanuig  of 
"  dip"  is  uncertain,  and  that  Milton  uses  it  for  "  moisten." 
The  officer,  therefore,  tells  him  to  "dip  it  in  the  water" 
and  the  man  complains  that  "  in"  does  not  always  mean 
"  within"  or  "  into." 

The  connnander  sets  him  an  exatnple  and  dips  the  bucket 
do^\^l  "  into'''  \}^i\  the  river,  Mar.  i.  9,  and  shows  him  thou- 
sands of  cases  in  which  it  is  dipped  " /;<"  [i*]  the  same 
water.  Matt.  iii.  6.  But  he  still  replies  that  all  these  in- 
stances do  not  prove  that  the  command  might  not  as  well 
be  performed  in  some  other  way.  The  object  for  which 
the  order  was  given  is  pointed  out  to  the  man,  clearly  im- 
plying immersion. 

Finally,  the  history  of  the  word  itself  is  gone  into,  and  it 
is  shown  that  literally  and  properly  the  term  "  dip'''  always 
involves  an  "  immersion ;"  or  if  it  ever  have  another  sense 
(which  ^unTl'^u  never  has),  it  is  so  remote  as  not  to  affect 
the  case,  and  that  in  the  order  in  question,  the  Aerb  to  dip 
means  to  ifnmerse,  or  it  means  nothing. 

And  so  the  command  given  us  by  the  Captain  of  our 
Salvation  to  be  ba^jtized,  is  a  command  to  be  immersed,  if  it 
is  any  thing. 

The  question  discussed  in  this  chapter  is  not  at  all  as  to 
the  importance  of  baptism ;  that  Avill  be  treated  of  else- 
where. It  is  not  as  to  whether  we  are  responsible  for  un- 
derstanding it,  or  whether  we  may  or  may  not  be  sincerely 
mistaken  y  that  depends  upon  each  man's  knowledge  or 
1  See  pp.  143,  4. 


KEMOTE    SUBTLETIES,  201 

means  of  kno^v'ing  the  truth.  The  simple  question  Me 
have  discussed  throughout  is,  %chat  is  the  meaning  of  the 
command  itself? 

We  are  far,  indeed,  from  intenduig  to  represent,  even  by 
the  ilhistration  mtroduced,  that  our  PedobaptLst  brethren 
Avould  intentionally  use  any  such  subtleties  in  regard  to  a 
Di^Tne  orduiance  so  obvious,  if  the  case  stood  before  them 
in  theii"  native  tongue  as  phxinl}-,  and  with  the  same  author- 
ity, that  it  does  in  the  original.  But  it  has  been  for  the 
purpose  of  illustrating  the  difficulties  that  have  been  arti- 
ficially, however  smcerely,  thrown  around  a  very  jjlain 
question,  as  well  as  the  progress  toward  their  removal  made 
during  the  last  hundred  years,  that  this  slight  figure  has 
been  used.  In  the  niceties  of  a  dead  language  there  are 
continual  plausibilities  and  incentives  to  the  exercise  of  in- 
genuity that  beguile  the  most  candid  and  learned  to  an  in- 
calculable extent.  And  as  a  generous  and  zealous  coimsel 
will  fully  persuade  himself  of  the  truth  and  justice  of  some 
cause  that  he  has  volunteered  to  defend,  when  no  impartial 
person,  with  the  same  knowledge  of  the  facts,  Avould  trust 
in  it  for  a  moment ;  and  from  believing  it  himself,  will  make 
use  of  remote  subtleties  that  it  mU  take  much  patient 
thought  to  unravel ;  so  in  the  order  of  defendmg  sprinkhng, 
plausibilities  have  sometimes  been  assumed  for  facts,  and 
exceptions  for  rules,  in  regard  to  the  construction  of  a  very 
simple  command  in  Greek :  which,  stripped  of  a  learned 
disguise,  and  put  into  the  language  in  which  both  parties 
are  accustomed  to  think  and  to  speak,  would  at  once  ap- 
pear to  all,  inconsistences  the  most  strange  and  inconceivable. 

9* 


202  IMPORTANCE     OF    BELIEVER'S     BAPTISM. 

CHAPTEE    II. 

THE   Il^rPORTANCE    OF   BELIEVERS'    BAPTISM. 

§  I.    Gexeeal  View  of  the  Subject. 

All  that  large,  respectable,  and  in  creasing  class  of  Pedo- 
baptists  who  concede  the  pomts  previously  discussed,  and 
yet  do  not  peld  their  personal  adhesion  and  obedience  to 
the  ordinance  of  beUevers'  baptism,  justify  themselves  on 
the  ground  that  they  do  not  esteem  the  matter  one  of  suf- 
ficient importance.  They  admit  the  command  originally 
given  was  to  immerse,  but  say  that  sprinklhig  will  do  as 
roell ;  that  a  drop  is  as  well-pleasing  as  an  ocean  to  Him 
who  reads  the  heart.  Baptism,  they  concede,  was  instituted 
as  a  profession  of  personal  fxitli  in  Christ,  but  they  think  the 
ratification  of  faith  aftervxird  will  do  as  well.  "We  have 
seen  fi-om  the  concessions  of  Pedobaptists  what  the  com- 
mand is ;  the  point  now  at  issue  between  them  and  the 
Baptists  is  whether  we  are  at  liberty  to  deviate  from  it. 

But  here  the  Baptist  pleads  at  once  that  a  comniandfrom 
which  ice  are  at  liberty  to  deoiate,  is  to  us  no  command  at 
all.  It  is  only  advice  at  best,  and  not  always  that.  If  the 
injunction,  for  instance,  be  conditional,  then,  in  the  absence 
of  those  conditions,  it  ceases  to  enjom.  There  are.  Baptists 
admit.  Christians  to  whom  the  command  of  bajrtism  does 
not  apply.  Persons  converted  on  a  death-bed  are  cases  of 
this  sort.  In  these  instances,  the  best  respect  that  can  be 
shown  to  the  ordinance  is  to  let  it  alone,  as  Christ  himself 
taught  us  in  the  case  of  the  dying  thief,  but  certainly  not  to 


POSITIVE   INSTITUTIONS.  203 

adiTiit  the  commancl  as  binding  and  then  substitute  some- 
thhig  else  instead.  That  lowers  do^^ni,  by  exam23le,  the 
whole  tone  of  Christian  piety  and  obedience.  The  Saviour 
did  not,  as  a  Papist  would  have  done,  command  some  of 
the  women  that  stood  by  bewailmg  to  fetch  a  little  water, 
]ior  the  beloved  disciple,  to  whom  he  committed  his  mother, 
to  asperse  the  quivering  jjenitent.  Thus  he  taught  us  that 
it  is  more  acceptable  to  him  to  avow  a  general  direction  to 
be  no  command  to  us  in  certam  cases,  than  to  substitute 
something  else  m  its  place  for  the  sake  of  a  quasi  fulfillment 
of  the  command.  All  this  forms  no  real  exception  ;  it  only 
narrows  the  question  down  to  this  :  Is  it  important  to  obey 
a  command  of  Christ  when  we  know  it  to  be  applicable  to 
us  ?  Thus  viewed,  it  seems  beyond  discussion,  appealing 
too  directly  to  the  moral  sense.  It  may,  however,  be  iUus- 
trated  by  parallel  circumstances  of  moral  obhgation. 

Herein  consists  the  speciality  of  positive  institutions. 
Moral  commands  rest  simply  upon  inherent  relations,  but 
positive  institutions  simply  upon  the  authority  of  the  law- 
giver. If  the  injunction  had  been  to  do  "  some  great 
thing^'''' '  in  which  could  have  been  traced  some  connection 
A\'ith  the  good  to  be  efFected,  men  would  probably,  like 
Xaaman,  be  more  wUling  to  comply.  We  may  obey  moral 
mj  unctions  because  we  see  our  interests  bound  up  in  them. 
But  positive  commands  test  the  pruiciple  simply  of  obedience 
to  T)\\'me  authority.  To  say  that  one  institution  of  Christ 
is  of  no  importance,  cuts  at  the  root  of  all  ordmances,  as 
they  rest  simply  upon  the  same  basis  ;  throws  us  back  for 
all  our  religion  upon  our  moral  philosophy  and  eternal  re 
lations  ;  and  strikes  at  all  revelation.  For  if  nothing  in  re- 
ligion is  to  be  buiding,  on  the  authority  of  God,  irntH  we 
'  2  Kings,  V.  13. 


204  CAUSE    OF   PUSEYISM. 

can  first  see  the  "wisdom  of  it,  eyen  a  Divine  command  is 
nothing  but  advice.  We  must  be  prepared  to  substitute 
the  tenth  day  for  rest  and  worship  instead  of  the  Sabbath, 
if  a  French  pliilosopher  can  show  that  the  decimal  system  is 
more  advantageous.  The  Lord's  Supper,  the  ministry,  the 
Church,  all  must  be  subject  to  the  refining  crucible  of  a 
utilitarian  philosoj^hy,  or  the  newest  fashion  of  supposed 
convenience. 

Withm  the  last  twenty  years  the  whole  principle,  or  want 
of  prmciple,  on  which  this  supposed  non-importance  of  be- 
lievers' baptism  rests,  has  received  the  most  signal  rebuke 
in  the  rise  and  temporary  success  of  Puseyism.  For  what 
is  it,  if  weighed,  but  the  jiantmg  of  earnest,  if  self-righteous, 
hearts  for  a  religion  of  positive  mstitutions.  It  is  the  re- 
bounding of  the  popular  mind  fi'om  the  excess  of  laxity  and 
indifference  as  to  ordinances,  into  the  old  extreme  of  super- 
stition. But  the  laxity  arose  out  of  the  contradiction  be- 
tween an  evangelical  faith  and  infant  baptism.  This  the 
"  Xorth  British  Review"  has  shown  in  passages  before 
quoted. 

Xo  wonder  Episcopacy  gains  ground  in  Xew  England. 
Men  want  a  religion  of  positive  institutions,  and  not  one  of 
which  each  part  in  turn,  except  some  abstract  faith,  is  de- 
clared every  Sabbath  from  the  j^ulpit,  and  in  every  act,  a 
matter  of  no  importance. 

Does  St.  Paul  make  the  sacraments  of  religion  unimport- 
ant in  their  places  ?  Does  he  not  say,  "  I  praise  you,  breth- 
ren, that  ye  keep  the  ordinances  as  I  delivered  them  unto  you  .^" 

Much  has  been  said  of  the  undue  stress  laid  by  Baptists 
upon  correctness  in  regard  to  a  ceremony.  But  whUe 
modern  evangehcal  Pedobaptists  are  thus  blaming  them  on 
one  side,  the  Church  of  Rome  and  millions  of  Protestants 


EUCHARISTIC   ELKMENTS    CHANGED.  205 

are  more  violent  against  them  on  the  other.  Baptists  at 
least  occupy  a  consistent  medium.  The  vast  majority  of 
those  who  uphold  mfant  sprmkhng,  do  so  from  an  exagger- 
ated and  idolatrous  belief  that  the  magical  efficacy  and  power 
of  baptism  make  those  who  receive  it,  "  members  of  Christ, 
and  heirs  of  heaven,"  by  an  opus  operatum.  This  was  the 
ancient  extreme,  against  Avhich  for  centuries  BajDtists  pro- 
tested. But  now  they  are  assailed  on  the  other  hand  by  a 
lai-ge  body  of  Christians  fallhig  mto  just  the  opposite  error, 
and  accomiting  all  the  sacraments  of  reUgion  as  of  no  im- 
portance. 

The  contests  of  all  Protestant  Churches  with  Rome,  on 
the  subject  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  render  certain  the  ulti- 
mate progress  of  that  prmciple  on  which  rests  the  import- 
ance of  believers'  baptism.  These  Churches  have  all  agreed 
as  to  the  necessity  of  upholding  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  of 
keeping  it  as  it  was  delivered  unto  them.  What  reproaches 
have  not  been  heaped  upon  the  Roman  CathoHcs  for  pre- 
summg  to  alter  it  by  takmg  away  the  ^\-ine  from  the  laity. 
But  then  is  it  not  at  least  equally  blameworthy  m  Protest- 
ants to  have  kept  back  the  innnersion  from  baptism.  Sup- 
posing that,  histead  of  bread  and  wine,  a  church  should 
substitute,  of  its  own  notion,  other  elements,  such  as  potatoes 
and  milk,  none  would  feel  more  shocked  at  it,  we  are  per- 
suaded, than  those  very  brethren  who  are  most  active  in 
advocatmg  a  substitution  of  spriuklhig  for  the  original  im- 
mersion. If  it  should  be  urged  that  the  word  "  supper" 
admitted  of  the  proposed  articles  as  well  as  those  which 
have  always  been  used,  would  that  be  sufficient  to  reconcile 
Christians  to  the  alteration  ?  But  while  there  may  easily  be 
a  suj)per  of  other  substances  than  bread  and  wine,  the  very 
term  baptism  necessitates  an  immersion. 


206  CLINIC   BAPTISM. 

But  the  importfince  of  a  rigid  adherence  to  positive  pre- 
cepts may  well  be  illustrated  from  the  eftects  of  one  of  the 
best  intentioned  deviations  in  regard  to  baptism  itself  upon 
the  whole  doctrine  of  the  early  Churches.  Sprmkling  was 
substituted  first  for  immersion  through  "  Clinic  J^ctptism,''^ 
or  the  baptism  of  those  reclming  on  couches  by  reason  of 
extreme  sickness.  For  the  sake  of  these,  first  pouring  and 
then  aspersion  were  introduced  at  about  the  middle  of 
the  third  century.  But  then  this  was,  by  many,  esteemed 
no  baptism  at  all,  and  Cyprian,  the  great  early  defender  of 
infant  baptism  had  to  plead  earnestly  in  vindication  of  its 
sufficiency  in  extreme  cases.  And  still  many  nicknamed 
such  persons  "  Clinics  instead  of  Christians.''''  The  feel- 
mg  on  this  pomt  was  very  strong  against  Cyprian  in  the 
Churches,  and  he  cheerfully  conceded  that  if"  any  of  the 
pastors  deemed  it  mvalid,  they  could,  without  any  breach 
of  good  fellowship,  or  charge  oi  anabajjlism,  do — just  what 
we  do,  immerse  them  afterward. 

Bingham  says,'  "  As  to  the  question  about  the  validity 
of  Clinic  baptism,  that  is,  whether  persons  who  were  only 
sprmkled  with  water  in  their  beds  hi  time  of  sickness,  and 
not  hmnersed  or  washed  all  over  the  body  in  baptism,  were 
to  be  looked  upon  as  complete  Christians  ;  Cyprian,  for  his 
own  part,  resolves  it  in  the  affirmative.  But  yet  if  any 
bishops  were  otherwise  persuaded  that  it  teas  not  lawful 
hajitism,  and  upon  that  groimd  gave  such  persons  a  new 
unmersion,  he  professes  that  he  prescribes  to  none,  but 
leaves  every  one  to  act  according  to  his  own  judgment  and 
discretion."  This  case  was  about  a.d.  250.  Doubtless 
many  a  sick  man  on  his  dying  bed  desii-ed  much  to  profess 
his  Saviom-  in  baptism,  and  it  appealed  strongly  to  the  heart 
'  Book  2,  chap.  vii.  sec.  v. 


HOW    TO     PREVENT    SACERDOTALISM.  20*7 

and  imagination  of  Christian  charity  to  bestow  it,  even  at 
the  expense  of  deviating  from  the  rnle.  It  was  a  strong 
case.  And  yet  we  may  noio  see  that,  had  those  early  Chris- 
tians told  such  dying  j^enitents  the  story  of  the  thief  upon 
the  cross  instead,  and  shown  them  that  such  cases  were 
doubtless  left  on  purpose  to  bear  Avitness  against  all  idolatry 
of  the  outward  signs,  and  to  show  that  baptism  teas  not  a 
saving  ordinance^  it  would  have  been  a  most  timely  protest, 
and  probably  have  saved  after  generations  an  awful  revela- 
tion of  the  man  of  sm.  Sacerdotalism  would  have  been 
stifled  at  its  birth,  and  Roman  Catholicism  been  averted.' 

Were  Peciobaptists  faithfully  to  restore  the  original  insti- 
tution, and  immerse  their  candidates,  it  Avould  soon  put  an 
end  to  infant  baptism.  Nothing  but  adult  baptism  would 
then  be  tolerated. 

The  importance  of  keeping  the  ordinances  as  they  were 

*  It  was  at  this  time  and  for  long  after,  a  generally  understood  rule, 
however,  that  those  who  had  received  only  clinic  baptism  were  to  be 
held  forever  after  as  iacapable  of  being  ordained  to  any  office  in  the 
church.  The  Council  of  Neocesarea  especially  ordains  this,  a.d.  312.  It 
has  been  said  that  it  was  only  to  mark  disapprobation  of  such  as  had 
delayed  baptism  till  sickness.  But  the  account  given  by  Cornelius,  a.d. 
251,  of  the  ordination  of  Novatus  shows  that  it  was  at  first  rather  from 
doubts  as  to  the  lawfulness,  and,  in  many  minds,  tlie  validity  of  such  bap- 
tisms. Speaking  of  that  ordination,  he  says,  "  All  the  clergy  and  many 
of  the  laity  resisted  it,  since  it  was  not  lawful  that  one  who  had  been  bap- 
tized in  his  sick  bed  hy  aspersion  as  he  was,  should  be  promoted  to  the 
order  of  the  clergy.  The  bishop,  however,  requested  that  it  should  be 
granted  to  him  to  ordain  only  the  one."  Describing  his  baptism,  Corne- 
lius says,  "Being  supposed  at  the  point  of  death  he  was  baptized  by  as- 
persion in  the  bed  on  which  he  lay,  if  indeed  it  he  proper  to  say  that  one 
like  Mm  did  receive  baptismy  (Eusebius,  Book  6,  chap,  xhii.)  Such  is, 
perhaps,  the  earliest  distinct  instance  of  clinic  baptism  on  record  given  in 
the  language  of  a  cotemporary. 


208  NEGLECT     OF     OKDINANCES. 

delivered,  may  be  illustrated  again  fi-om  the  practical  ten- 
dency of  the  contrary  course  to  destroy  all  the  sacramental 
part  of  religion.  This  has  been  exhibited  dui'ing  the  last 
hundred  years.  The  open  neglect  of  mfant  baptism  is  ob- 
vious, and  has  awakened  the  attention  of  the  Pedobaptist 
Churches  in  Xew  England.  But  the  decline  of  attention 
to  all  the  admitted  requirements  of  positive  religion  is  not 
sufficiently  felt.  There  are  vast  multitudes  of  men  who 
are  generally  considered,  and  indulge  the  hope  themselves, 
that  they  are  Christians,  but  yet  live  for  years  without  mak- 
ing any  profession  of  rehgion,  mthout  any  baptism,  or  any 
communion,  without  family  prayer,  with  but  a  meager  at- 
tendance at  pubUc  worship,  and  but  a  lax  observance  of  the 
Sabbath.  The  proportion  of  such  persons  is  increasing 
through  the  regions  of  evangehcal  Pedobaptism,  and  the 
secret  of  all  this  is  lax  views  of  the  importance  of  positive 
religion. 

Directly  ministers  begin  to  ai'gue  as  an  excuse  for  diso- 
beying a  divine  command,  that  "  a  drop  is  as  good  as  an 
ocean,"  it  is  not  difficult  to  foresee  that  then'  people  will 
carry  it  one  step  further,  and  say,  "  Xone  is  as  good  as  a 
drop."  It  may  not  at  once  be  said,  or  in  so  many  words ; 
it  may  only  manifest  itself  in  action,  or  the  want  of  action, 
but  the  inference  "ttHll  soon  be  drawn.  The  tendency  of 
the  whole  is  to  Quakerism.  Xow,  as  in  man  the  soul  and 
body  are  miited,  and  neither  can  operate  m  the  present 
state  without  the  other,  so  is  it  in  religion.  God  has 
clothed  the  spiritual  essence  of  faith  and  love  -^^ith  a  corpo- 
reity of  sjTnbol  and  sacrament  from  which  they  can  not  be 
separated  without  death  ensuing. 


BAPTISM    WITNESSED     BT    AN     INFIDEL.  209 

§  IL    The  Teachings  and  Professions  of  Christian  Baptism: 

IMPOE.TANT. 

The  first  great  lesson  of  Christian  baptism  is  that  per- 
sonal allegiance,  and  an  im2>licit  submission  to  the  religion 
of  the  New  Testament,  lies  at  the  entrance  of  a  pure  Chris- 
tianity. 

About  fifty  years  ago,  an  officer  of  the  French  army,  a 
gentleman  of  distinguished  connections,  was  taken  prisoner 
m  the  war  between  France  and  England,  brought  to  Liver- 
pool, and  put  upon  his  parole.  Strolling  one  fine  Sabliath 
afternoon,  in  company  with  some  brother  officers  in  the 
same  situation  with  himself,  outside  the  city,  he  saw  a  com- 
pany gathered  round  a  small  sheet  of  water,  where  baptism 
"was  about  to  be  administered.  Curiosity  led  him  to  ap- 
proach, when  he  perceived  some  boys  annojdng  those 
present,  by  throT\"ing  pebbles  into  the  water.  There  were 
several  ladies  going  to  be  baptized,  and,  Frenchman-like,  a 
feeling  of  gallantry  induced  liim  to  persuade  his  brother 
officers  to  join  with  him,  and  form  a  "  guard  of  honor" 
round  the  water.  He  could  not  understand  much  English, 
but  he  soon  gathered  that  these  persons  were  consecrating 
themselves  to  the  service  of  their  Saviour.  He  noticed 
also  that  the  minister,  a  gentleman  of  superior  education, 
appealed  to  the  JVeio  Testament  as  the  foundation  of  all 
that  he  said  and  did  ;  not  to  the  authority  of  the  Church, 
not  to  reason,  but  to  the  loords  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles. 

Brought  up  ui  Paris  during  tlie  fervor  of  the  first  French 
Revolution,  not  only  was  he  an  utter  infidel  himself,  but  he 
did  not  know  that  any  persons  of  education  now  believed 
the  Xew  Testament.  He  supposed  that  Christianity  might 
do  to  amuse  children  and  uneducated  people,  but  that  no 


210  A     FRENCH     CONSUL 

mtelligent  persons  in  tlie  nineteenth  century  believed  the 
Xew  Testament  to  be  true. 

His  chief  surjwise  was  that  the  minister,  candidates,  and 
people,  all  so  evidently  considered  the  words  of  Christ  and 
his  Apostles  to  be  of  bindmg  authority  in  this  matter.  So 
deep  was  the  impression  thus  made,  that  he  resolved  to  do 
what  he  never  had  done,  "  read  the  Xew  Testament  for 
himself."  From  the  moment  he  began,  the  truthfulness  of 
the  narrative  became  to  him  miquestionable.  The  majesty 
and  authority  of  the  words  of  Christ  laid  hold  upon  his 
heart.  He  read  on  and  on,  retired  for  a  fortnight  from  the 
company  of  his  fellow  officers,  and  at  last,  to  save  himself 
from  further  interruptions,  wrote  a  card,  and  fastened  it  on 

the  door  of  his  own  room — "  M.  De engaged  reading 

the  ISTew  Testament."  He  rose  fi-om  the  study  of  that 
book  a  converted  man,  and  soon  was  himself  buried  with 
Christ  by  baptism. 

At  first,  his  fi^iends  would  ridicule  the  Xew  Testament  in 
his  presence.  But  he  soon  silenced  them  thus :  "  Gentle- 
men, have  you  ever  read  this  book  ?"  "  No."  "  But  I 
have,  and  it  is  not  what  you  imagme.  Read  it  through, 
and  then  ridicule  it  as  much  as  you  please.  But,  untU 
then,  unless  you  A^dsh  personally  to  hurt  me,  ridicule  it  no 
more."  In  that  way,  by  the  earnest  conviction  of  its  di- 
■vine  authority  which  had  first  impressed  him  at  the  water's 
edge,  he  persuaded  at  least  one  brother  officer  to  read  that 
blessed  book,  who  also  became  a  Christian,  and  imited  with 
the  same  Church. 

In  his  youth,  the  writer  of  these  pages  remembers  well 
to  have  seen  him.  Kind,  gentlemanly,  j^olished  to  the 
highest  degree,  he  became  bold,  earnest,  and  active  as  a 
Christian,  beyond  most  aromid  him.     From  being  a  soldier 


OPENS     HIS     HOUSE,  211 

under  the  greatest  of  earthly  generals  and  potentates,  he 
became  a  soldier  under  the  Captain  of  Salvation.  So 
strong  was  his  attachment  to  his  religion  and  his  rehgious 
friends,  that,  on  the  restoration  of  peace,  his  brother,  who 
became  Keeper  of  the  Seals  of  France,  procured  him  an 
appointment  as  consul  at  one  of  the  English  ports.  Through- 
out the  whole  remamder  of  a  long  hfe,  but  recently  closed, 
he  retained,  to  a  suigular  degree,  and  with  a  touchuig 
fidelity  the  impression,  first  made  at  those  baj^tismal  Avaters, 
that  an  implicit  allegiance  of  heart  and  life  to  Jesus  Christ, 
and  submission  to  the  system  of  religion  taught  m  the 
New  Testament  alone  is  Christianity.  He  was  never  or- 
dained. But,  while  French  consul,  he  opened  his  house 
each  day  and  conducted  worship,  preaching  to  his  family, 
and  such  j^rivate  friends  and  countrymen  as  his  station 
gathered  roimd  him.^  Meeting  on  one  occasion  with  a 
note  Avhich  pleased  him,  written  by  a  pastor  to  a  member 
of  his  Church,  he  addressed  him  a  letter,  such  as  one  of  the 
Chi-istians  of  early  times  might  be  supposed  to  have  writ- 
ten to  another.  "  Dear  Sir  and  Brother,"  it  began  :  "  I 
shall  not  apologize  for  troubUng  you  with  this  letter.  If 
you  are  a  true  minister  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  I  take 
you  to  be,  you  Avill  be  glad  to  aid  a  brother  soldier  in  his 
great  conflict."  He  then  narrated  the  history  of  liis  con- 
version, and  requested  a  correspondence,  which  continued 
for  about  twenty  years. 

Having  iniated  the  minister  to  come  and  visit  him ;  he 
had,  hke  Peter,  calculated  the  hour  of  his  arrival,  made  an 
appointment  for  service,  sent  and  gathered  his  friends  and 

*  His  ignorance  of  denominations  and  parties  produced  great  simplicity 
of  character  and  address. 


212  "follow   me." 

acquaintances,  emj^loying  even  the  bell-man  of  the  town  to 
give  the  matter  publicity. 

Visiting  London,  the  ministei-  insisted  that  he  should 
preach  an  evening  lecture  to  the  congregation.  With 
broken  English,  but  a  heart  full  of  love  to  Christ,  he  took 
for  his  text  those  words  of  the  Saviour,  "Follow  me." 
This,  he  said,  was  the  word  of  command  given  by  the  great 
Captain  of  our  salvation.  He  frankly  spoke  then  of  his 
own  former  life  as  a  soldier,  and  how  he  had  been  led  into 
allegiance  and  obedience  to  Christ,  proceeding  to  shoAV  that 
this  was  a  Captain  who  was  never  conquered,  but  went 
forth  conquering  and  to  conquer,  on  which  account  He  had 
a  right  to  say  "  Follow  me ;"  a  Captain  who  had  never  re- 
treated an  inch  of  ground,  and  therefore  He  said  "  Follow 
me" — who  had  never  lost  a  soldier — who  had  never  bidden 
one  to  go  where  he  had  not  gone  before,  but  through  peril, 
and  temptation,  through  suflering  and  death,  had  led  the 
way,  and  therefore  said  '■'■Follow  me.''''  His  broken  English, 
his  military  air,  his  sharp  accent,  as  he  gave  out,  over  and 
again,  "  the  word  of  command,"  left  deep  the  impression 
on  many  a  heart  that  night,  that  he  had  learned  the  great 
lesson  of  baptism  at  that  water's  side,  as  but  few  even  of 
Christ's  followers  learn  it — that  implicit  obedience  and  alle- 
giance to  Jesus  Christ  is  the  first  requisite  of  Christianity. 

This  is  the  great  lesson  needed  by  the  present  age,  both 
practically  and  speculatively.  AYhere  the  outward  profes- 
sion of  Christianity  costs  no  suffering — where  a  certam 
measured  amount  of  respect  for  religion,  and  profession  of 
it,  is  highly  reputable,  half-heartedness  is  the  great  practical 
besetting  sin  of  us  all.  And  now  when  Roman  Catholic- 
ism and  Puseyism  on  the  one  side  are  putting  the  authority 
and  customs  of  the  Church  above  the  New  Testament,  and 


THE    DISCIPLES     OF     SOCRATES.  213 

when  infidelity  in  all  its  forms  and  shades  on  the  other,  is 
putting  above  it  the  reason  and  moral  philosophies  of  the 
day,  there  is  no  lesson  of  Christian  truth  more  central^ 
more  Catholic  and  valuable  than  this,  that  an  unfeigned, 
practical,  and  implicit  loyalty  to  that  system  of  religion 
which  Christ  and  his  Apostles  gave  us — that,  and  nothing 
else  is  Christianity. 

Jesus  Christ  demands  our  allegiance  to  himself  person- 
ally. Even  one  of  the  disciples  of  Socrates  remarked  that 
he  perceived  so  much  that  was  wise  and  excellent  in  aU 
those  sayings  which  he  did  understand,  that  he  felt  assured 
that  those  which  he  did  not  were  equally  valuable.  Beyond 
this,  whether  the  Christian  can  see  the  reasonableness  or  not 
of  the  sayings  and  commands  of  the  Saviour,  he  knows  it 
is  his  duty  to  receive  them  as  true,  and  obey  them  as 
divine — to  own  allegiance  to  Christ  as  the  Eternal  Word 
and  the  King  of  kings.  The  soldier  on  the  field  of  battle 
does  not  stop  to  argue  whether  the  orders  of  liis  general 
are  wise,  and  much  less  if  they  wiU  lead  him  out  of  danger, 
but  carries  out  the  prescribed  system,  and  obeys  with  a 
high  feeling  of  honor  and  allegiance.  So  the  true  Chris- 
tian carries  out  tlie  Christian  discij^line  as  a  system  of  Ufe, 
and  obeys  Christ  the  great  Captain  of  his  salvation. 

Thus  true  baptism  teaches  men  a  holy  personal  devoted- 
ness  to  that  system  of  religion  which  Christ  and  His  Apostles 
gave,  in  distinction  from  Roman  Catholic  views  of  Church 
authority  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  cold  morahties  of  a 
mere  skeptical  philosophy  on  the  other. 

The  importance  of  Christian  baptism  appears  again  in 
this,  that  it  instructs  each  believer  in  the  original  and 
divinely  appointed  summary  and  confession  of  the  Christian 
Faith. 


214  AN    AGE     OF     KECOXSTRUCTIOX. 

"We  live  in  an  age  remarkable  for  the  formation,  not  so 
much  of  new  sects,  but  of  new  parties  that  embrace  the 
most  ^ital  portions  of  old  denominations.  And  the  sects, 
at  present,  will  remain  for  the  meclianical  arrangements  and 
organization  of  religious  worship,  but  there  are  new  gen- 
eral prmciples,  new  affinities,  and  repulsions  now  becoming 
far  stronger  than  those  of  the  creeds  which  marked  the 
distmctions  of  two  hundred  years  ago,  and  so  much  more 
unportant  are  these  becoming  with  the  moving  spuits  of 
the  age,  that  the  merging  of  many  sects  is  a  mere  question 
of  tune  ;  and  the  reconstruction  of  Christians  on  broader 
and  more  comprehensive  principles,  both  of  faith  and  char- 
ity than  is  recognized  by  mere  sectarians,  is  inevitable. 

In  the  midst  of  this  anarchy  preceding  reconstruction. 
Christian  baptism,  truly  considered,  is  rendered  increas- 
ingly important  by  every  movement  of  the  age  ;  as  mstruct- 
ing  each  candidate  into  living  views — and  an  ex  animo  con- 
fession of  the  fundamental  piinciples  of  Christianity  by 
baptizing  them  mto  the  faith  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  commission  mserts  the  creed  of  the  Church,  the 
rock  upon  which  it  was  founded.  And  short  as  the  words 
are,  there  is  couched  under  these  three  mysterious  names, 
as  here  used,  all  that  is  essential  in  Christianity  ;  so  that 
every  one  who  rightly  and  in  his  heart  receives  and  em- 
braces them,  has  therein  all  the  elements  of  the  Christian 
religion,  and  is  fit  for  Church  membership ;  while  no  one  not 
thus  recei^•ing  them  is  worthy.  Mere  assent  to  the  words 
is  nothmg  one  way  or  the  other,  but  the  \dtal  assent  of  the 
heart  is  the  essence  of  Christianity. 

What  is  it,  for  instance,  to  be  baptized  into  the  name  of 
the  Father !  and  why  is  this  made  the  first  requisite  of  the 


BAPTISMAL  CREED THE  FATHER      215 

heavenly  system  ?  Because  as  the  realization  of  the  Fatherly 
character  of  God  is  the  greatest  requisite  of  all  true  piety ; 
so  the  avowal  of  this  realization  by  that  living  faith  which 
gives  alone  vitality  to  all  the  teachings  of  natural  religion, 
is  made  the  first  part  of  the  Christian  profession.  When 
a  man  can  lay  his  hand  upon  his  heart  and  say,  "  Now  I 
beUeve — now  I  feel  that  God  is  my  Father  and  that  I  am 
His  child — from  Hun  I  have  derived  a  new  and  holy  life — 
He  has  breathed  uito  me  the  filial  spirit — I  commune  with 
Him  through  prayer  as  my  Great  Father  in  heaven — I  love 
and  look  up  to  Him,  depending  on  Him  m  all  things,  and 
bemg  governed  by  His  will  and  pleasure  supremely ;  and  I 
know  that  He  loves  and  Avatches  over  me — that  Plis  Pi-ovi- 
dence  is  disciplining  me,  and  His  hand  guiding  all  my 
affairs" — that  man  has  rightly  learned  this  first  article  of 
the  Christian  creed ;  this  portion  of  the  great  mysteiy  of 
the  Godhead.  He  believes  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Father. 
The  wicked,  the  impenitent  man  can  not  say  this,  ^-ith 
truth ;  no  unregenerate  man  can.  Ea'cu  a  bad  man  may 
adore  the  God  of  nature,  may  feel  that  he  is  a  Great  Being 
and  a  Powerful  Beii]g — yes,  a  terrible  Being.  He  may  be- 
lieve in  him  as  the  All-A\-ise  Creator,  and  love  ingeniously 
to  trace  out  the  wonders  of  his  works,  he  may  conceive 
of  him  as  Almighty,  the  Self-existing  .JehoA\ah,  as  the  Ruler 
and  Governor  of  men  ;  or  even  as  their  final  Jiidge  ; — but 
as  the  Father  ? — Xo. 

Hence,  St.  John  declares,  no  man  knoweth  the  Father 
but  the  Son,  and  He  to  whom  the  Son  shall  reveal  Him. 
"  No  man,"  says  Christ,  "  cometh  to  the  Father  but  by 
me."     "I  am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  Life." 

What  is  it  then  rightly  to  receive  the  doctrine  of  the 
Son  ?    Can  it  mean  less  than  to  believe  that  as  ordinarily 


216  "the    son." 

the  Son  partakes  of  the  mtrinsic  and  equal  nature  of  the 
Father,  even  so  withui  the  man  Clu-ist  Jesus  there  came 
do'wn  and  tabernacled  a  full  and  complete  mdwelling  of  the 
Divme  Nature  ? — that  he  who  was  thus  the  brightness  of 
the  Father's  glory,  and  the  express  miage  of  His  person, 
became  at  once  the  Revealer  of  the  Father  and  the  Res- 
cuer of  men  ?  To  believe  in  the  Son  then  embraces  a  re- 
liance on  the  divine  authority  of  all  He  said  and  did  on 
earth  for  man's  redemption ;  the  Son  executing  and  acting 
out  here  those  things  of  which  the  pattern  existed  in  the 
eternal  counsels  of  the  Divine  mind ;  doing  nothing  of  Him- 
self but  what  He  thus  saw  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father.  The 
plan  all  prepared  in  Heaven — its  working  out  committed  to 
the  Son  on  earth ;  even  as  He  says,  "  My  Father  worketh 
hitherto,  and  I  work" — "  I  and  my  Father  are  one."  To 
receive  Christ,  therefore,  is  (and  lierem  Ues  the  great  prac- 
tical efliciency  of  the  doctrine),  to  receive  all  His  work,  all 
He  said,  all  He  did  and  suflered  as  the  authorized  exposi- 
tion and  carrying  out  of  the  divine  counsels  in  our  behalf, 
and  a  reflection  of  the  disposition  of  the  full  Deity  toward 
each  weary  and  heavy-laden  sinner. 

When  the  Ethiopian  eunuch  sat  in  his  chariot,  and  his 
faith  was  demanded  by  Philip,  he  replied  at  once,  "  I  be- 
lieve that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God."     It  was  the  most  com-  * 
prehensive  confession  possible  of  all  this — the  essence  of 
the  whole  Christian  faith. 

When  a  man  has  thus,  with  all  his  soul,  received  Christ 
as  the  Son,  when  he  can  lay  his  hand  upon  his  heart,  and 
say,  "Now  I  believe  in  the  Son  of  God — I  receive  Him  as  my 
Master,  I  acknowledge  allegiance  and  obedience  to  Ilim 
as  my  Head  and  Kmg ;  I  hope  for  forgiveness  and  jjeace 
through  Hun  as  my  Mediator  and  Priest ;  I  receive  Him  as 


"the    holt    ghost,"  217 

my  guide  tlirough  life,  His  precepts  to  be  my  rule,  His 
doctrines  and  revelations  my  faith — Himself  as  the  great 
elder  brother  in  whom  the  whole  family  are  named,  the 
Head  of  His  body  the  Chm-ch ;" — that  man  hath  both  the 
Father  and  the  Son. 

But  "  no  man  can  say  that  Jesus  is  Lord  but  by  the  Holy 
Ghost."  "What  is  it,  then,  that  a  man  professes  to  believe 
in  being  baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  Cer- 
tainly not  less  than  that  a  Divine  Spiritual  Power  operates 
consciously  and  directly  upon  his  soul ;  and  which  he  recog- 
nizes as  distinct  from  all  other  impressions  produced  by  the 
Father  and  the  Son  ;  a  power  which  enlightens  and  elevates 
him,  makes  dark  thmgs  light  and  difficult  duties  easy,  in- 
structs and  keeps  him  in  the  way  of  holiness,  gives  him. 
energy  in  feebleness,  and  conifort  in  sorrow ;  causes  him  to 
know  what  he  could  not  know  ^\4thout,  to  love  what  he 
hated,  and  to  hate  what  he  loved :  a  power  which  thiis 
changes  his  nature,  restoring  the  soi;l,  in  its  ultimate  and 
perfect  sway,  to  its  original  image  of  God. 

When  a  man  can  lay  his  hand  ujDon  his  heart  and  say,  I 
thus  believe  in  the  Holy  Gliost :  God's  holy  Spirit  works 
ndth  my  spirit,  teaches  me  to  pray,  causes  me  to  love  holiness 
and  hate  iniquity,  "vvith  supreme  affection  has  taught  me  to 
"  embrace  Christ,  and  to  love  the  Father ;  when  a  man  has 
an  experimental  faith  thus  in  the  Father,  and  in  the  Son, 
and  in  the  Holy  Ghost ;  feels  that  these  three  are  but  One 
— one  whole — one  "name" — one  in  his  O'wn  heart  and  expe- 
rience :  then,  and  not  till  then,  has  he  the  elements  of  that 
Christian  faith  professed  in  being  baptized  in  the  name  of 
the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

"Who  can  estimate  the  importance  of  such  teachings  at 
such  a  time,  both  to  enlarge  Christian  charity  to  the  com- 

10 


218  UNIVERSALIST     BAPTISM. 

prehension  of  all  vrho  credibly  avow  their  experience  of 
these  fundamental  truths ;  and  as  a  conservative  element,  at 
the  same  time,  to  restrict  the  profession  of  Christianity  to 
such.  All  the  controversies  now  agitating  Christendom 
will  giA^e  each  year  an  increased  prominence  to  the  baptismal 
confession  thus  regarded.  Christian  baptism  is  more  than 
instruction,  therefore,  it  is  a  -personal  profession  of  m.2knjYital 
truths. 

Several  years  ago,  there  was  an  extensive  revival  of  re- 
ligion in  an  inland  towTi  of  New  England,  where  the  Uni- 
versahsts  were  numerous  and  influential.  Some  who  had 
belonged  to  that  Society  joined  the  Baptist  Chm-ch,  and 
many  more,  firm  supporters  of  the  system,  were  much 
shaken.  At  length  their  minister,  who  had  heretofore  for 
twelve  years  ever  ridiculed  the  ordinances  of  reUgion  in  his 
sermons,  altered  his  style  of  preachmg,  told  his  people 
that  he  was  con\dnced  of  the  propriety  of  Christian  baptism, 
and  of  the  importance  of  formuig  a  Universalist  Church, 
inviting  those  of  his  congregation  who  desired,  to  miite 
with  him  in  domg  so. 

A  few  agreed  to  jom,  some  desired  sprinkling,  some  pour- 
ing, and  some  immersion  ;  and  of  those  who  chose  the  latter 
some  preferred  kneeling  in  the  Avater,  some  at  the  water's 
edge.  Another  Universalist  preacher  came  over  from  a 
neighboring  town,  first  innnersed  the  mmister  who  resided 
there,  after  which  they  together  administered  what  each 
desired,  to  the  rest,  and  then  formed  them  all  into  a  professed 
Church. 

On  the  next  Sabbath  it  was  noticed  that  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal Universalists  of  the  town,  and  his  wife,  attended  with 
the  Baptists,  and  agam  on  the  following  Sabbath.  It  was 
the  first  time  for  years  that  they  had  been  seen  in  an  evan- 


THE     AWAKENIKG.  219 

gelical  place  of  worship,  and  all  were  convinced  that  there 
must  be  .some  change  in  their  views.  The  man  had,  years 
before,  fitted  up  the  whole  of  the  second  story  of  his  house 
into  one  large  ball-room,  where  nearly  all  the  balls  and 
public  gatherings  used  to  be  held.  It  was  the  rendezvous 
of  the  opponents  of  evangelical  religion,  and  he  had  ever 
been  particularly  bitter.  Nor  was  it  without  some  mis- 
givings that  the  Baptist  minister,  having  resolved  to  visit 
him,  fastened  his  horse  at  his  gate. 

He  at  once  gave  this  account  of  himself:  "  About  two  or 

three  weeks  ago  I  attended  the  baptism  of  Mr. ,  (the 

Universalist  minister).  I  had  heard  him  formerly  ridicule 
that  which  he  now  quoted  the  New  Testament  to  prove 
true.  This  led  me  to  observe  it  more  carefiilly,  and  I  be- 
came convmced  that  if  baptism  was  nght,  universalism  was  all 
wrong,  and  if  imiversalism  was  right,  baptism  was  all  wrong." 

"Wliat  led  you  to  that  opinion?" 

"Baptism,"  he  repUed,  "seems  mtended  to  divide  all 
men  into  two  classes,  the  rehgious  and  the  worldly.  It 
draws  a  line  between  them.  Universahsm  makes  no  such 
difference.     It  breaks  down  all  the  distinction." 

The  minister  asked  which  he  intended  to  give  up. 

He  rephed  that  he  and  his  wife  had  been  led  by  what 
they  had  witnessed,  prayerfully  to  read  the  Bible ;  that 
they  had  foimd  singular  light  and  strength  through  prayer, 
and  had  enjoyed  the  worship  in  which  they  had  united,  but 
wished  to  see  more  clearly  before  they  decided. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  they  both  professed  an  en- 
tire change,  and  m  proper  time  applied  for  Christian  bap- 
tism, desiring  to  consecrate  the  hall-room,  and  open  it  for 
the  worship  of  their  Master,  whenever  there  should  be  an 
opportunity. 


220  THE     BAPTISMAL     PROFESSION. 

It  was  therefore  arranged  that  on  the  follo^dng  Sabbath 
evening,  this  room  should  be  used  for  Divine  service,  pre- 
vious to  the  baptism. 

"Within  full  view  of  the  house  rolled  a  clear  and  beautiful 
stream,  which  suited  well  for  the  ordinance.  Seldom  has 
baptism  seemed  so  powerfully  to  j)reach  the  whole  doctrines 
of  evangeUcal  religion,  and  show  its  own  practical  import- 
ance by  the  nature  of  the  profession  which  it  makes.  A 
large  multitude  was  there  of  those  who  a  short  time  before 
had  -uatnessed  the  same  outward  form  used  by  a  Universahst. 
But  "  without  controversy"  it  professed  and  preached  all 
the  points  of  an  evangelical  faith  and  personal  experience 
as  no  words  of  man  could  express  them.  It  seemed  devised 
to  cut  at  the  roots  of  the  system  of  popular  modern  Uni- 
versalism,  by  its  simple  professions,  as  no  mere  argument 
could.  It  ajipeared  as  if  made  to  utter  just  all  of  those 
truths  that  a  Universahst  might  desire  to  proclaim  in  re- 
noxmcing  that  system. 

It  professed  a  "  fleeing  from  the  lorath  to  come^''  by  per- 
sonal repentance.'  Redemption  through  the  death  andresur- 
rection  of  Christ ;°  his  o\n\  regeneration  or  death  to  sin,  and 
newness  of  heart  and  hfe,^  and  his  faith  in  future  retribu- 
tions and  hope  of  being  finally  raised  from  the  dead  to  hve 
with  Him  in  glory. ^  It  is  not  as  a  matter  of  controversy, 
not  as  a  sectional  distinction,  that  Baptists  love  this  ordi- 
nance, but  as  the  most  clear  profession,  the  most  eloquent 
preacher  of  those  great  truths  which  all  real  Christians 
desire  to  bind  around  their  hearts,  and  unfold  to  the  world 
as  a  bamier,  in  their  acts  and  lives. 

'   Matthew,  iii.  7,  8.  *   Colossians,  ii.  12. 

'  Eomans,  vL  4-6.  *   1  Corinthians,  xv.  29. 


THE     PLEDGES     OF     BAPTISM.  221 

§  III.    The  Pledges  op  Baptism. 

Baptism  is  not  merely  retrospective,  but  also  prospective; 
not  only  a  profession  of  the  past,  but  a  promise  and  a  i^ledge 
of  things  yet  future,  and  hence  its  important  bearing  on  the 
Christian  to  the  very  end  of  life.  It  binds  him  by  solemn 
obligations,  and  sustanas  his  fliith  by  formal  pledges.  It  is 
not  necessary  here  to  repeat  what  has  been  said  on  a  former 
page,  as  to  the  increasing  sense  which  is  every  where  mani- 
festing itself  of  the  value  of  the  formal  part  of  reUgion, 
Puseyism  and  Romanism  prove  this.  The  only  question  is, 
whether  we  shall  have  a  series  of  forms  and  symbols  teach- 
ing error  or  teacMug  truth ;  those  estabhshedby  the  Saviour 
of  men,  or  those  which  sprmig  up  out  of  the  corruptions  of 
after  ages. 

The  idea  of  many  evangeUcal  Christians,  that  because 
good  men  differ  about  forms,  therefore  it  is  better  to  treat 
them  all  with  indifference,  makes  as  little  accoimt  of  human 
nature  and  exj)erience,  as  it  does  of  the  Bible. 

On  the  pai't  of  the  candidate,  baj^tism  is  a  promise  to  live 
a  life  of  separation  from  the  world,  and  consecration  to 
Christ ;  and  in  this  its  importance  is  felt.  At  the  close  of  a 
passage  before  quoted,  from  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  St. 
Paul  speaking  of  the  baptismal  vow,  says,  "  Let  not  sm, 
therefore  reign  in  your  mortal  bodies  that  ye  should  obey  it 
in  the  lusts  thereof,  neither  yield  ye  your  members  as  instru- 
ments of  unrighteousness  unto  sin  ;  but  yield  yourselves 
mito  God,  as  those  who  are  alive  from  the  dead,  and  your 
members  as  instruments  of  righteousness  imto  God." 

Thus  the  baptized  are  pledged  to  separation  from  a  life 
of  sin,  dedicating  themselves  to  a  course  of  holmess.  Baptism 
is  in  this  respect  the  most  solenm  thing  on  the  face  of  the 


222  BAPTISM    A    RENUNCIATION. 

earth.  The  believer  in  Christ  here  sixrrenders  the  world, 
and  iwofesses  huuself  aUve  unto  God.  He  here  renounces, 
yea,  as  it  ^Yere,  buries  in  a  Hquid  grave,  the  jDomps  and 
vanities  ot  the  Avorkl — its  pride,  its  ambition,  its  selfishness, 
its  sui^reme  and  ruling  attachment  to  the  riches,  and  hon- 
ors, and  pleasures  of  this  life.  He  promises  to  be  a  fol- 
loAver  of  the  meek  and  humble  Jesus,  to  obey  his  laws,  to 
imitate  his  example,  to  be  guided  by  his  Spirit,  to  hve,  in 
fact,  a  life  of  holy  love,  courage  and  confession.  Baptism 
is  here  placed  at  the  threshold  of  the  Christian  course,  as  a 
pledge  that  the  candidate  will  be  ready  to  follow  it  up  by 
a  life  spent  in  the  confession  of  Christ  m  whatever  way  he 
requires.  This  duty,  deriving  its  obhgation  from  the  wiU 
of  the  Saviour  alone,  bemg  a  positive,  as  distinct  from  a 
moral  command,  is  well  fitted  to  show  that  in  all  our  ways, 
even  of  avo\\Tiig  Christ,  we  must  be  regulated  by  his  will. 
The  moment  that  any  lose  sight  of  this,  they  are  much 
distressed  to  know  just  when  and  how  to  confess  Christ,  and 
when  and  where  to  stop.  On  the  one  hand,  there  is  to  be 
avoided  the  ostentatious  spii'it  of  a  Jehu,  who  through 
pohcy  and  vain  glory  cried  out  "  Come  see  my  zeal  for  the 
Lord  of  Hosts,"  or  the  unbidden  impetiiosity  of  Peter, 
when  he  smote  off  the  ear  of  Malchus.  But  the  cowardly 
spirit  of  approaching  Jesus  but  only  m  private;  and  as 
the  "  Teacher  come  from  God,"  yet  like  Nicodemus  only 
venturing  by  night,  for  fear  of  the  cross,  this  is  also  to  be 
dreaded  on  the  other  hand. 

The  child  of  grace  here  learns  at  the  entrance  of  his 
course,  that  nothing  is  more  necessary  than  to  be  ready 
cheerfully,  openly,  and  daily,  to  avow  his  rehgious  princi- 
ples. And  he  also  pledges  himself  to  confess  Christ  through 
life,  in  the  Saviour's  own  way ;  to  go  so  far  as  he  has  some 


A    RECIPKOCAL    PLEDGE.  223 

plain  directions,  and  no  further ;  never  to  go  back  where 
there  is  a  command  to  go  forward,  and  never  to  go  forward 
where  he  is  not  bidden.  Such  a  principle  heartily  embraced 
and  acted  upon,  at  the  outset,  will  save  the  Christian  many 
sorrows  and  difficulties,  conferring  the  elements  of  a  manly 
and  consistent  piety. 

But  the  pledge  is  reciprocal.  While  the  beHever  surren- 
ders himself  to  Christ  in  the  waters  of  baptism,  Christ  in 
that  ordinance  pledges  himself  to  the  beUever,  yea  to  carry 
him  through,  who  faithfully  and  earnestly  engages  in  the 
Christian  Hfe,  relying  on  his  grace.  Here  he  enters,  as  it 
were,  into  a  public  covenant  wnth  his  Maker  and  Redeemer. 
He  takes  God  for  his  portion,  who  by  authorizing  him  to 
do  this,  here  pledges  himself  that  neither  death,  nor  life, 
nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things  pres- 
ent, nor  things  to  come  shall  separate  him  from  His  love. 
He  who  has  known  what  it  is  truly  to  thirst  after  righteous- 
ness, will  find  here  the  voice  of  God  saymg  to  him,  "  Ho, 
every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  ye  to  the  waters  *  *  * 
and  I  will  tnahe  an  everlasting  covenant  loitli  you^  even  the 
sure  mercies  of  David."  And  when  in  after  days  his  soul 
is  cast  do^^m,  and  his  heart  is  disquieted  within  him,  he  can 
remember  and  recur  to  the  covenant  thus  publicly  ratified 
by  divine  avithority  in  the  waters  of  his  baptism,  and  liis 
spu'it  will  be  refreshed  while  he  says,  "  As  the  hart  panteth 
after  the  water-brooks  so  panteth  my  soul  after  Thee,  oh 
God.''^ 

Indeed  the  final  pledge  given  to  the  Christian  in  his  bap- 

*  The  whole  of  this  beautiful  Psalm  (42d)  was  sung,  during  some  cen- 
turies, by  the  Christians,  as  they  walked  in  procession  to  the  baptistries, 
when  a  candidate  was  about  to  be  baptized.  So  also  were  parts  of 
Isaiah,  Iv. 


224  BAPTISM    A    TLEDGE 

tism  is  that  Jesus  will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  great  day  by 
the  same  spirit  which  raised  up  Christ  from  the  dead,  dwel- 
ling in  him.  Rom.  viii,  11.  It  thus  becomes  the  pledge  to 
Mm  of  a  resurrection  to  eternal  life. 

There  is  a  passage  of  Scripture  not  without  its  difficulties 
of  interpretation  indeed,  but  which  yet  clearly  shows  that 
there  is  insj)ired  authority  for  regarding  the  baptism  of  a 
behever  a  jjledge  of  his  glorious  resurrection.  It  is  in  1 
Cor.  XV.  29,  where  St.  Paul,  arguing  on  this  subject  sud- 
denly asks,  "Why  are  we  then  baptized  for  the  dead,  if  the 
dead  rise  not,  and  why  stand  we  in  jeopardy  every  hour?" 
The  Ajiostle  may  perhaj^s  be  regarded  as  referring  to  the 
case  of  those  who  presented  themselves  for  baptism  after 
the  funerals  of  the  martyrs,  hke  fresh  soldiers  pressmg  for- 
ward in  the  assault  in  the  room  of  those  fallen  on  the  field 
of  battle.  Such  persons  might  be  said  to  be  baptized  for, 
or  in  the  room  of  the  dead.  And  St.  Paul  might  reasonably 
ask,  why  then  are  these  thus  ba^jtized  for  the  dead  ?  Why, 
when  one  rank  of  Christian  soldiers  is  swept  away  by  the 
sword  of  persecution,  does  another  step  forward  and  take 
its  place,  except  that  in  baptism  they  have  symbohzed  their 
faith  in  the  resurrection,  their  hopes  of  thereby  arriving  at 
a  better  state  of  existence  ?  And  why  stand  the  rest  in 
jeopardy  of  the  same  fate  every  hour  ?  But  whatever 
precise  intei-pretation  we  may  give  these  words,  it  is  clear 
that  in  baptism  the  Christian  professes  his  faith  in  the  resur- 
rection even  on  the  i^rinciple  upon  which  the  Apostle  argues, 
"  if  we  have  been  planted  together  in  the  hkeness  of  his 
death  Ave  shall  be  also  in  the  likeness  of  his  resurrection." 

The  fathers,  therefore,  received  baptism  as  a  pledge  and 
symbol  of  the  resurrection  in  its  very  mode.  Chrysostom 
says,  "  our  being  baptized,  even  immersed  in  water,  and  our 


OF    A    GLORIOUS    RESURRECTION.  225 

rising  again  out  of  it,  is  a  symbol  of  our  descending  into 
the  grave,  antl  our  returning  thence.  Wherefore  St.  Paul 
calls  baptism  a  burial.  For  he  says  we  are  buried  with 
Christ  by  baptism  unto  death." ' 

This  Christian  rite,  then,  is  a  pledge  of  the  bright  fu- 
ture life  from  him  who  liveth  and  was  dead,  and  is  alive  for- 
ever more,  and  who  has  the  keys  of  hell  and  death,  who 
openeth  and  no  man  shutteth,  and  shutteth  and  no  man 
openeth.  It  is  a  message  direct  from  the  Lamb  that  sitteth 
in  the  midst  of  the  throne.  "  Be  thou  faithful  unto  death 
and  I  will  give  thee  a  crown  of  life."  He  says  to  each 
weak  and  trembling  beUever,  "Struggle  on  but  a  little 
while,  be  himible  in  the  midst  of  a  proud  world,  be  self- 
denying  in  the  midst  of  the  gay  and  luxurious,  be  prayer- 
ful amid  the  worldly,  love  when  hated,  bless  when  perse- 
cuted, be  faithful  for  a  little  time,  and  as  sure  as  thou  art 
what  thou  here  professest,  I  will  come  again  and  receive 
thee  unto  myself,  that  where  I  am  thou  mayest  be  also." 
Thus  the  Christian's  baptism  becomes  to  him  a  symbol,  yet 
not  a  mere  symbol,  but  a  pledge  fi'om  the  Head  of  the 
Church,  let  down  to  hun,  as  it  were,  by  a  golden  thread 
from  heaven ;  a  pledge  and  a  foretaste  of  joys  to  come ;  "  an 
earnest  of  his  inheritance." 

And  is  it  now  asked  by  any,  why  is  it  important  to 
preserve  true  and  origmal  baptism  ?  The  reply  is,  be- 
cause each  and  all  of  these  principles  which  it  teaches,  pro- 
fesses and  pledges,  are  important ;  it  assures  the  candidate 
that  all  these  things  are  not,  as  many  would  suppose,  interpo- 
lations into  the  Christian  system ;  they  are  reaUties,  all  en- 
grafted by  Christ  himself  mto  the  initiatory  ordinance  of 
his  discipleship. 

*  Chrys.  Horn.  40,  on  1  Cor. 
10* 


226  EFFECTS     OF    BAPTISM. 

In  this  new  we  may  and  ought  to  prize  Christian  baptism 
very  highly.  Not  as  an  act  of  merit;  not  as. a  matter  of 
controversy  and  of  dispute.  A  holy  mind  will  shrink  from 
doiug  or  saying  any  thing  unnecessarily  to  wound  the  feel- 
ings of  a  sincere  Christian,  who  may  be  weak  and  in  ig- 
norance of  his  duty.  But  as  a  solemn  act  of  spiritual  wor- 
ship to  the  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost ;  as  a  most  solemn 
part  of  authorized  self-consecration ;  as  the  most  eloquent 
preacher  of  all  the  chief  doctrines  of  Christianity,  we  are 
obhged  to  love  and  prize  this  ordinance  most  highly.  It  is 
a  grand  conservator  of  those  holy  truths.  It  is  the  ark  of 
the  covenant,  in  which  is  deposited  the  autograph,  not  of 
the  law,  but  of  the  Gospel. 


§  rv.    Baptism  Important  foe  its  Effects. 

The  object  of  the  present  section  is  further  to  illustrate 
the  importance  of  Christian  bajatism,  from  its  effects  on  the 
world,  as  the  commencement  of  a  life  of  open  and  avowed 
piety.  Every  yoimg  Christian  in  turn  probably  asks  this 
question.  Why  can  not  I  as  well  be  a  follower  of  Christ 
without  making  a  public  profession  of  rehgion  ?  As  it  is 
not  possible  for  hun  to  understand  all  the  reasons  at  the 
outset  of  his  religious  hfe,  God  has  not  left  the  matter  op- 
tional, but  seen  fit  to  rest  it  upon  his  or^'n  positive  institu- 
tion, and  attached  to  it  a  degree  of  unportance  wiiich,  in 
the  present  day,  it  is  too  much  the  custom  to  disparage. 

The  history  of  an  avowed  piety  is  one  that  begins  very 
early  in  that  of  our  race,  and  long  before  the  flood.  No 
sooner  was  the  famUy  of  Seth,  the  son  of  Adam,  estabUshed 
in  the  earth,  than  we  read,  according  to  our  present  version, 


SEPAEATIOK.  227 

that  "  then  began  men  to  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord,"  ^ 
This  can  not  mean  that  now,  for  the  first  time,  men  began 
to  pray  to  God.  Adam  and  Eve  worshiped  Him  both  be- 
fore and  after  the  expulsion  from  Eden.  Cain  and  Abel 
both  sacrificed  to  Him ;  and  Seth  was  probably  a  pious 
man.  Without  examinmg  other  conjectures,  the  marginal 
reading  appears  to  give  the  probable  sense  of  the  passage, 
"  Then  hegan  inen  to  call  themselves  by  the  7iame  of  the 
LordP  That  is  to  say,  in  the  time  of  Enos,  the  grandson 
of  Adam,  the  descendants  of  Cain  had  probably  become  so 
wicked  that  it  was  necessary  to  make  a  broad  fine  of  de- 
markation  between  those  who  served  Jehovah  and  those 
who  served  him  not.  At  this  period  j)ious  men  first  began 
to  separate  themselves  openly  from  the  Avicked,  and  to  avow 
a  distinctive  religion.  In  the  same  spirit,  Moses,  at  a  later 
period,  says  to  the  children  of  Israel,  "  Thou  hast  avouched 
this  day  the  Lord  to  be  thy  God."  "^  And  thus  Isaiah  pro- 
phecies, "  One  shall  say  I  am  the  Lord's,  and  another  shall 
caU  himself  by  the  name  of  Jacob,  and  another  shaU  sub- 
sci'ibe  with  his  hand  unto  the  Lord,  and  surname  himself 
by  the  name  of  Israel."' 

God  has  always  had  a  seed  to  serve  him.  Long  before 
the  event  recorded  in  Genesis,  there  were  men  of  personal 
and  practical  holiness,  but  not  of  the  same  conspicuous  and 
avowed  piety  as  henceforth.  The  Avickedness  of  the  wicked 
made  their  reUgion  stand  forth  more  conspicuously,  and 
made  them  feel  the  necessity  of  a  more  bold,  active,  agress- 
ive  piety  than  heretofore,  hence  they  "  called  themselves 
by  the  name  of  the  Lord."  Accordingly,  in  Genesis,  vi.  3, 
we  find  them  known  as  "  the  sons  of  God." 

Here,  then,  commenced  the  distinction  between  the  Church 
'  Genesis,  iv.  26.  2  Deuteronomy,  xxvL  17.         '  Isaiah,  xliv.  5. 


228  DANIEL'S     OPEN     WINDOW. 

and  the  world;  and  just  in  proportion  as  it  has  been  kept 
up,  religion  has  ever  prospered,  while  by  so  much  as  it  has 
been  relaxed,  religion  has  degenerated  and  lost  its  power 
over  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  mankind, 

We  are  not  now,  however,  gomg  to  discuss  the  state  of 
the  world  and  of  the  Church  as  they  Avere  five  thousand 
years  ago.  We  have  to  speak  of  them  as  they  are  noio,  to 
show  the  miportance  of  open  2>iety — the  necessity  of  avow- 
ing our  religion  so  far  as  it  goes,  and  of  calling  ourselves  by 
the  name  of  the  Lord.  It  is  probable  that  every  emotion 
of  the  mind  has  its  natural  and  appropriate  expression  in 
some  corresponding  motion  of  the  body.  And  our  actions 
are  becoming,  in  proportion  as  they  are  the  natural  or 
divinely-appointed  expressions  of  some  proper  emotion  of 
the  mind.  If  the  Spirit  truly  worketh  within  us,  it  is  to  "uall 
and  to  do  the  good  pleasure  of  our  Heavenly  Father. 

There  are  certain  natural  exhibitions  of  piety,  to  repress 
which  is  highly  injurious  to  the  religious  character.  When 
Daniel  knew  that  the  writing  was  signed,  consigning  to  the 
den  of  lions  whosoever  worshiped  God  for  thirty  days,  he 
prayed  as  aforetime^  with  his  window  open,  three  times 
daily.  To  have  opened  that  Avindow,  if  he  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  have  it  shut,  would  have  been  ostentation,  but  to 
have  closed  it  for  fear  of  the  king's  decree,  or  of  the  lion's 
den,  would  have  been  denying  his  God.  His  consistency, 
perhaps  his  salvation,  turned  upon  leaving  that  window 
open  at  that  time. 

"  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world,"  said  the  Saviour  ;  "  a 
city  that  is  set  on  a  hill  can  not  be  hid."  It  is  m  the  nature 
of  light  to  shine,  and  to  throw  its  bright  and  glittering  rays 
far  and  wide  over  creation,  and  it  is  a  law  of  God  that  we 
may  not  fetter  this  diffusive  tendency,   may  not  light  a 


THE     LIGHT-HOUSE.  229 

candle  to  put  it  under  a  bushel.  If  we  make  the  attempt, 
the  light  will  soon  exhaust  the  air  "within,  and  thus  extin- 
guish itself.  If  Christ  has  kindled  a  flame  of  grace  m  our 
hearts,  however  feeble,  all  artificial  efforts  to  conceal  it  are 
wrong.  That  light  might  otherwise  shine  over  the  dark 
waters  of  the  sea  of  hfe,  and  perchance  keep  others  from 
the  rocks  and  breakers  which  are  on  every  side  of  a  reli- 
gious course.  All  unnatural  effort  to  repress  the  flame  of 
piety  is  a  WTong  done  to  the  Church  and  to  the  world. 

Christians  are  like  light-houses  along  a  rock-boimd  coast. 
What  should  we  think  of  the  keeper  of  one  of  these  beacons, 
who  Avas  too  modest  to  make  his  habitation  knoT\Ti  by 
kindling  up  his  lantern  on  some  stormy  night  ?  He  might 
not  hear  the  gurgling  soimd  of  the  vessels  as  they  sank  like 
lead  in  the  mighty  waters.  They  might  riot  strike  against 
his  light-house.  He  might  not  perceive  the  shriek  and  last, 
loud  wail  of  mortal  agony,  as  men  were  in  their  death 
struggle.  But  would  he  be  the  less  answerable  for  not  hav- 
ing let  Ms  light  shine  ?  Or  if  it  were  a  revolving  light,  off 
the  mouth  of  some  harbor,  where  the  bright  home  of  many 
a  storm-tossed  mariner  awaited  him,  and  the  keeper  only 
neglected  to  Avind  the  machinery,  so  that  it  blazed  not  up 
at  the  appointed  moment,  Avho  can  tell  the  perils  mto  which 
thousands,  sailing  by  those  hghts,  would  be  thi'OAvn  in  a 
single  night  ? 

Christians  are  the  keepers  of  these  light-houses.  They 
are  the  light  of  the  world.  No  man  can  teU  the  efiect  of  a 
single  suppression  of  the  soul's  great  message  to  mankind. 
Not  until  the  thrones  are  set,  and  the  dead,  small  and  great, 
stand  before  God  ;  not  until  "  the  sea  shall  give  up  the  dead 
that  are  m  it,"  shall  aU  the  consequences  of  suppressing  light 
be  manifest. 


230  EFFECTS     ON    TIMID     CHRISTIANS. 

That  sea !  it  is  navigated  by  millions,  crossed  by  all  in 
the  great  voyage  of  human  life,  ships  are  foundering  on  it 
in  every  gale,  and  shoals  and  breakers  are  all  around.  But 
yonder  lies  the  harbor,  and  there  stands  the  light-house — the 
Church  of  the  livmg  God,  round  which  the  hopes  of  a  thou- 
sand spiritual  mariners  are  cluiging,  and  to  'which  each  eye  is 
directed.  Suddenly  the  Ught  gets  out  of  order — it  revolves 
no  longer ;  its  rays  are  dim  when  they  should  be  clear  and 
bright.  The  mariner  stands  in  doubt,  and  fears  to  venture  ; 
the  hght  is  not  such  as  is  laid  down  m  his  chart ;  he  deems 
it  safer  to  ride  out  the  tempest  at  sea.  Or,  while  he  hesi- 
tates, the  light  goes  out,  and  he  has  missed  its  bearings ;  he 
strikes  a  rock.  Is  there  no  responsibility  here  ?  But  the 
keeper  is  only  asleep  perhaps,  when  he  should  have  been 
awake,  he  only  does  not  let  his  light  shine. 

One  of  the  earliest  and  most  universally  extended  tempt- 
ations of  the  young  Christian,  is  to  suppress  the  natural 
and  appropriate  expression  of  the  religious  emotions.  But 
what  does  it  really  amount  to  ?  Just  this  :  smothering  the 
cries  of  an  infant,  by  which  it  makes  known  its  existence, 
and  its  want  of  care  and  nutrition.  Many  young  Chris- 
tians, from  a  fear  of  forwardness,  and  self-deception,  and 
future  inconsistency,  stifle  every  natural  and  spontaneous 
exhibition  of  their  reUgious  wants  and  emotions,  the  anxie- 
ties and  experiences  of  their  souls,  in  the  great  struggle 
after  the  unseen  mysteiies  of  spiritual  Ufe  ;  until  by  stifling 
the  expression,  they  lose  the  ability  to  express,  and  soon 
the  disposition  to  act,  and  the  power  to  feel.  It  is  as  if  one 
should  put  an  extinguisher  on  a  lamp,  lest  the  wid  should 
blow  it  out. 

Such  jicrsons  wUl  point  to  the  many  who  have  professed 
and  boasted ; — who,  Hke  the  foolish  virgins,  have  gone  forth 


EDDYSTOiSrE    LIGHT-HOUSE.  231 

"with,  the  lamp  of  a  profession,  but  without  the  oil  and  fire 
of  grace.  They  refer  to  these  failures,  and  ask  how  they 
shall  venture  to  erect  then-  hght,  even  on  the  Rock  of  ages, 
"vvhen  so  many  have  failed. 

There  stands  upon  the  coast  of  England,  near  PljTnouth 
Harbor,  the  celebrated  Eddystone  Light-house.  About 
one  hundred  and  twenty  years  ago,  an  engmeer  of  distiri- 
giiished  abiUty,  erected  a  fabric  there,  riveted  so  firmly  to 
the  rocks  by  iron  elects,  that  he  was  heard  boastmgly  to 
say,  that  he  only  wished  he  might  be  in  it  when  the  fiercest 
storm  that  ever  raged  under  heaven  was  blo^ving.  After 
many  years,  he  was  on  a  visit  to  the  building  in  1745,  dur- 
ing one  of  the  severest  gales  on  record.  And  in  a  dark 
night,  whUe  many  a  sailor  was  tossing  upon  the  sea,  the 
hght  was  observed  to  be  extinguished;  and  when  the  stoi'm 
cleared  up,  light-house,  keeper,  architect,  all  were  found  to 
have  been  swept  away,  not  a  vestige  Avas  left,  the  very 
iron  ha\dng  been  torn  from  its  riveted  foundations  in  the 
rock. 

The  present  light-house,  which  has  stood  ever  since,  was 
then  erected  on  the  same  spot ;  over  the  entrance  to  which, 
the  new  architect  modestly  and  piously  mscribed  these 
words :  "  Except  the  Lord  build  the  house,  they  labor  in 
vain  who  build  it."     And  there  it  stands  to  this  day. 

Christian  baptism,  naihng  np  this  talismanic  sentence 
over  the  door  of  each  heart,  whUe  it  boldly  erects  its  hght 
to  the  world,  becomes  divinely  protected  and  preserved  in 
doing  so,  amid  all  the  storms  and  temj^ests  of  life. 

Every  one  of  us  has  some  circle  of  influence.  Our 
avowal  of  the  Saviour  is  the  most  efficient  way  of  mducing 
others  to  take  refuge  in  Christ.  Multitudes  are  constantly 
led  to  him  through  the  experience  of  those  around  them, 


232  INDIVIDUAL    NEGLECTS    MULTIPLIED. 

and  his  fame  and  his  glory  is  thus  spread  more  in  the  earth 
than  in  any  other  way.  Our  avowal  of  gratitude  may 
bring  thousands  of  others  ultimately  to  glorify  Hun  to  aU 
eternity.  What  should  we  thmk  of  a  poor  man  cured  gra- 
tuitously of  some  desperate  disease,  who  refused  to  ac- 
knowledge that  he  ever  had  been  sick,  or  restored  by  the 
physician,  saying  that  the  cure  of  so  bad  a  case  could  brmg 
no  renown  to  any  one  ? 

What  might  seem  slight  neglect  in  an  individual  case, 
multiplied  by  the  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  the 
spiritual  Israel,  mounts  up  in  each  age  to  a  mighty  robbery 
of  the  great  Bang  of  Zion,  defrauding  him  of  vast  revenues 
of  glory. 

Were  aU  those  who  consider  themselves  truly  pious,  to 
bring  their  full  and  proper  meed  of  praLse,  and  honor,  and 
glory  to  the  Lamb,  by  a  public  and  constant  confession  of 
Him  before  men,  in  every  appointed  way,  it  would  make 
tills  earth  resound  with  hallelujahs  and  ring  ^viih  the  praise 
of  Immanuel,  It  would  bring  such  a  tribute  of  reno'wn 
and  thanksgivmg  as  to  produce  the  greatest  awakening, 
both  of  saints  and  of  sinners,  the  world  has  ever  seen. 
And  these  cases  would  bruig  others  and  others  in  each  suc- 
cessive generation.  But  what  wonder  if  the  great  Head 
of  the  Church  withhold  his  Spirit  and  his  presence — what 
wonder  if  the  world  be  so  neglectful  of  religion,  and  the 
Church  so  cold,  while  Jesus  is  robbed  and  defrauded  of  liis 
own  glory,  as  He  is  daily  in  the  house  of  those  of  all  of 
us,  in  this  age,  who  consider  ourselves  his  friends  ? 


INFANT    BAPTISM    PEOVED    INJURIOUS.  233 


CHAPTER    III. 

INFANT   BAPTISM   PROVED  INJURIOUS  BY  THE  CONCESSIONS  OP 
ITS  RECENT  DEFENDERS. 

Some  years  ago  several  students  were  being  examined  in 
Systematic  Theology,  in  a  Theological  Seminary,  m  which, 
though  itself  Pedobaptist,  young  men  of  diiferent  denomi- 
nations were  educated,  and  ui  which  there  Avas  much  Chris- 
tian UberaUty  both  of  sentiment  and  expression. 

"Who  are  the  proper  subjects  for  baptism?"  was  one  of 
the  questions  asked. 

A  student  replied,  "  Believers,  and  it  has  generally  been 
the  opmion  of  the  Church,  that  then-  mfants  are  entitled  to 
the  same  privilege." 

"  And  pray,  sir,  what  is  your  own  oj^inion  on  the  sub- 
ject?" 

"  I  have  not  been  able  to  satisfy  myself  that  it  was  a 
Scriptural  practice."  He  then  explained  that  although  he 
did  not  beheve  infant  baptism  to  be  a  Biblical  institution, 
yet  he  thought  it  a  touching  and  beautiful  rite,  well  calcu- 
lated to  lead  parents  to  recognize  their  religious  duties  to 
their  children,  and  dedicate  them  solemnly  to  God. 

This  is  in  substance  the  view  now  entertained  in  regard 
to  this  ordinance  by  a  large  number  of  the  most  enlight- 
ened Pedobaptist  divines  in  this  country — by  the  Organ 
of  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church  in  Scotland — by  such  men 
as  Coleridge  was  in  England,  by  Bunsen,  Neander,  and  the 
great  body  of  men  of  the  highest  claims  to  learning  and 


234  COLERIDGE'S    IDEA 

piety  in  Germany.  This  is,  in  fact,  the  grovmd-work  of 
most  modern  defenses  of  the  system,  and  as  such,  demands 
our  present  attention — itself  indicatmg  great  progress,  while 
rendermg  the  ultimate  abandonment  of  the  system  inevit- 
able. 

§  I.     Coleridge's  Defense  of  Infant  Baptism. 

We  begm  with  one  whose  varied  learning  and  profound 
reasoning  powers  have  given  his  thoughts,  fragmentary  and 
almost  contradictory  as  they  often  were,  and  generally  ob- 
scurely exj^ressed,  so  much  weight  with  all  deep  thinkers 
on  religious  subjects, 

Coleridge,  as  we  have  before  seen,  concedes  freely  that 
"  there  exists  no  sufficient  proofs  that  the  baptism  of  in- 
fants was  the  practice  of  the  Apostolic  age,"  and  that  he 
"honors  the  course  of  those  who  reject  it,  as  most  scrip- 
tural." Yet  he  argues  in  favor  of  infant  baptism,  on  such 
grounds  as  the  foUo^^'ing : 

"  "Where  a  ceremony  answered  and  was  intended  to  an- 
swer several  pm-poses,  which  at  its  first  institution  were 
blended  in  resi:)ect  of  the  time,  but  which  afterward  by 
change  of  circumstances  were  necessarily  dismiited,  then 
either  the  Church  hath  no  power  or  authority  delegated  to 
her,  or  she  must  be  authorized  to  choose  and  determine  to 
which  of  the  several  purposes  the  ceremony  should  be  at- 
tached." And  he  asks  boldly,  "  in  what  manner  the  Chm-ch 
could  have  exercised  a  sound  discretion  more  ^\dsely  and 
effectively  than  it  has  done."  ' 

Such  a  defense  as  this  is  surely  more  alarming  and  in- 
jurious than  infant  baptism  itself  For  so  long  as  Scripture 
was  quoted  to  maintain  it,  however  erroneously,  a  tribute 

1  Aids  to  Reflection — ^Baptism. 


OF     A     "dISCRETIOXARY    POWER."  235 

of  respect  was  at  least  paid  to  its  supremacy,  while  liere  in- 
fant baptism  is  made  to  rest  upon  the  "  discretionary 
authority"  of  the  Church, 

The  whole  plausibihty  of  this  argument  lies  in  taking  for 
granted  a  "  change  of  circumstances"  which  has  no  exist- 
ence. But  the  real  point  is  not  whether  the  Church  has 
made  a  wise  or  unwise  use  of  its  authority,  but  M'hether  it 
possesses  any  power  at  all  to  make  such  an  alteration.  This 
is  the  true  question  at  issue.  The  visible  churches  of  Christ 
are  simply  executive  bodies,  not  legislative.  Their  duty  is 
to  carry  out  the  laws  of  Christ,  not  to  make  laws  of  their 
own  ;  to  exhibit  m  living  operation  that  system  of  religion 
which  Jesus  Christ  and  His  mspired  Apostles  left  us,  but  not 
to  alter  or  amend  it  at  pleasure.  K  any  set  of  men  in  the 
name  of  a  Church,  undertake  to  improve  upon  Christianity, 
to  repeal  its  most  fundamental  laws,  and  alter  the  whole 
nature  of  its  membership ;  they  may  raake  an  agglom- 
ei'ation  of  the  superstitious  philosophies  and  opinions  of  all 
subsequent  ages,  upon  a  small  basis,  perhaps  of  Christianity 
as  a  germ.  This  concedes  in  full  the  principle  of  all  that 
the  Church  of  Rome  has  ever  asserted.  It  is  certain  that 
at  the  Reformation,  none  of  the  Churches  that  then  arose 
could  have  stood  a  moment,  had  they  admitted  this  openly. 
The  right  here  claimed  is  not  only  a  legislative  but  a  funda- 
mental— a  constitutional  power,  an  authority  to  overthrow 
the  origmal  construction  of  Christ's  visible  church,  and  to 
create  an  mstitution  fundamentally  different.  For  if  bap- 
tism is  the  door  of  visible  Church  membership,  the  admis- 
sion of  all  infants  for  life  to  a  society  originally  composed 
only  of  penitent  believers,  is  one  of  the  most  radical  alter- 
ations conceivable.  The  whole  terms  of  membership  are 
changed.     It  is  a  coup  d'etat  of  the  most  sweeping  kind, 


236  WHAT    IS     "the    church?" 

flooding  and  altering  the  whole  course  of  operative  power. 
Part  of  the  effects  may  be  obviated  where  these  persons 
are  arbitrarily  excluded  until  they  are  converted  as  they 
sometimes  virtually  are,  but  the  prmciple  of  deviation  at 
wUl  is  established.  But  ui  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  those 
thus  admitted  become  its  members  and  officers,  often  ob- 
tamhig  the  comjjlete  control,  as  in  all  National  Establish- 
ments. 

Another  question  arises  here.  What  is  this  body  which 
it  is  m-ged  has  thus  the  right  to  change  the  terms  of  Church 
membership  so  radically  ?  The  word  Church,  exxXijoiu^  it  is 
generally  conceded,  is  used  in  the  Xew  Testament  ecclesias- 
tically hi  two  senses,  and  but  two.^  1.  A  particidar  "vdsible 
Church  or  body  of  Christians  in  the  habit  of  assembling  to- 
gether for  worshij),  and  walkuig  in  the  doctrmes  and  ordi- 
nances of  the  Gospel."  2.  The  Church  universal,  consist- 
ing of  all  those  whose  names  are  written  in  heaven.' 

Now  if  the  authority  to  make  this  alteration  were  lodged 
any  where,  it  would  be  in  the  imiversal  Church,  according 
to  Mr.  Coleridge.  But  then  this  Church  consists  not  al- 
ways of  those  who  profess  religion,  but  of  all  those  who 
possess  it,  whether  they  are  baptized  or  not.  The  dying 
thief  was  a  member  of  no  visible  Church,  but  was  not  he  a 
member  of  Christ's  mystical  body,  seeing  that  om-  Saviour 
said,  "  To-day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  m  Paradise  ?"  All  true 
Christians  are  members  of  this  body,  the  samts  in  heaven 
as  well  as  those  on  earth.  Christ  its  Head  is  in  heaven, 
and  its  members  wiU  all  assemble  at  the  Marriage-supper  of 
the  Lamb,  but  never  till  then.  The  idea  of  one  only  true, 
visible,  universal  Church  on  earth,  is  a  fiction  early  invented 

*  See  Robinson's  Lexicon,  eKK?.7]aia,  (b.) 

»  GaL  i.  2,  Rev.  L  20,  iii.  22.  »  Heb.  xii.  23,  Eph.  L  22,  iil  10. 


HOW     IT    WAS     CHANGED,  237 

to  crush  out  supposed  heretics,  and  naturally  and  necessarily 
resolving  itself  into  Popery. 

Besides,  if  "  the  Church"  possess  this  fundamental  pow- 
er to  alter  its  o^ii  constitution,  where  is  the  proof  that  it 
has  ever  so  exercised  it.  If  the  masses  of  Christians  ever 
consented  to  the  change,  it  was  not  with  their  eyes  open, 
publicly  and  fairly.  It  was  through  false  pretenses  of  Scrip- 
tural authority,  through  the  force  and  usurpation  of  spirit- 
ual rulers ;  a  fi-aud  \dolating  the  whole  procedure.  For  it 
was,  before  it  became  common,  falsely  professed  to  have 
been  derived  from  apostolic  tradition,  or  from  the  authority 
of  circumcision,  and  above  all  from  the  necessity  of  its  re- 
generating efficacy  to  procure  salvation.  Even  now  it  could 
not  stand  with  evangelical  Christians,  except  upon  a  suppo- 
sition, by  the  masses,  of  its  Scriptiiral  authority.  We 
should  soon  find,  universally,  that  if  the  Church  had  power 
to  alter  it  one  way,  they  had  power  and  discretion  too  to 
alter  it  back  again. 

But,  in  fact,  this  whole  appeal  to  "  the  Church"  is  as  if 
the  President  of  a  Bank  should,  at  the  annual  meeting  of 
its  shareholders,  decide  that  every  biU-holder  had  a  right 
to  vote,  and  then  take  advantage  of  a  resolution  passed  by 
the  body  composed  of  both  these  classes  to  prove  that  his 
decision  was  correct.  The  natural  result  of  such  an  exten- 
sion of  the  controlling  power  to  a  large  number  of  those 
who  had  Httle  real  interest  in  its  management,  would  be  the 
practical  reversion  of  it  back  mto  the  more  entire  charge 
of  the  officers.  This  was,  too,  the  immediate  effect  of  infant 
baptism. 

But  let  us  suppose  further  that  such  a  meeting  should  em- 
power the  directors,  president  and  cashier  to  make  any 
other  alteration  they  saw  best,  and  henceforth  fill  all  vacan- 


238  A     FRAUD     LEADING    TO     POPERY. 

cies,  and  be  self-j^erpetuatiiig  with  the  whole  legal  powers 
of  the  bank.  Would  that  render  the  transaction  valid  ? 
And  if,  while  acting  under  these  quasi  powers,  the  property 
were  squandered  by  folly  or  by  fraud,  would  not  the  real 
shareholders  have  a  right  to  step  in,  resume  the  election  of 
their  own  officers,  and  proclaim  all  measures  carried  through 
the  admission  of  improper  persons  to  the  corporate  powers 
of  the  body,  Uable  to  be  invalidated  ?  This  is  precisely  the 
manner  m  which  the  name  of  "  the  Church"  has  been  mis- 
used, and  its  authority  prostituted.  Under  the  plea  of  exer- 
cising "  a  sound  discretion  -wisely  and  effectually,"  the  whole 
terms  of  Church  membership  have  been  radically  altered 
through  infant  baptism,  and  then  the  ajjpeal  is  made  to  the 
body  thus  altered,  to  prove  both  its  own  authority  and  its 
consent.  First  by  a  baptism,  without  any  profession  of  faith, 
vast  herds  of  the  unregenerate  are  for  centuries  accounted 
members  of  the  Church.  Unfit  to  manage  these  concerns 
themselves,  all  the  jjower  naturally  falls  into  the  hands  of 
the  clergy,  whether  with  or  ^\-ithout  the  consent  of  the 
masses  matters  little.  The  whole  affair  is  radically  opposed 
in  principle  to  the  nature  of  the  Church  established  by 
Christ  and  his  Apostles. 

So  palpably  is  what  is  commonly  called  "  the  Church"  but 
a  fiction,  in  all,  excepting  the  earlier  centuries  of  ecclesi- 
astical history,  that  it  means  really  not  the  people,  but  the 
priests  ;  not  the  body,  but  the  officers  ;  until  the  whole  sys- 
tem culminates  natm-ally  in  a  center — the  Pope. 

But  if  it  be  said  that  each  of  the  true  visible  Churches 
of  Christ  have  this  j^ower  of  altermg  their  owai  constitu- 
tions at  any  tune,  which  is  the  only  possible  Protestant 
ground,  then  each  being  independent,  can  not,  by  its  action, 
bind  any  other.    It  would  amount  to  this,  therefore,  that 


CHUECHES    DIVINELY    RECOGNIZED.  239 

every  particular  Church  is  a  perfectly  voluntary  societ}', 
withoict  even  the  most  fundcanental  prinoAple  of  metnher- 
ship  or  organization  laid  doion  in  the  JVeio  Testament  un- 
alterably/, having  not  a  single  necessary  feature  of  perma- 
nent identity.  The  New  Testament  represents  each  one  of 
those  Churches  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  whole  globe, 
as  being  buUt  up  of  "  lively  stones  a  spiritual  house,  a  holy 
priesthood  to  oifer  up  spiritual  sacrifices  to  God."  "We  find 
ui  the  book  of  Revelations,  Christ  representing  himself  as 
walking  in  the  midst  of  the  seven  golden  candlesticks,  and 
declarmg  that  the  candlesticks  represent  liis  Churches.  On 
these  and  other  representations  of  Scripture  we  have  aU 
been  taught  that  they  are  divine  institutions  to  which 
Christ  has  promised  his  presence  to  the  end  of  time. 

But  if  now  these  bodies  claim  a  right  to  alter  this  con- 
stitution, and  mstead  of  a  spiritual  house  built  of  lively 
stones,  whole  nations  may  be  swept  into  them  without  per- 
sonal piety,  the  next  question  is,  does  this  promise  of  the 
presence  of  Jesus  Christ  extend  to  all  such  institutions  ? 
Their  constitutions  may  be  made  or  altered  by  some  liber- 
tine monarch,  like  Henry  VIII.,  or  by  delegates  who 
agree  upon  a  certain  platform,  and  amend  and  alter  it  at 
their  pleasure.  They  may  all  of  them  call  themselves 
Churches,  they  may  have  a  succession  of  ministers  if  they 
see  fit,  but  the  question  now  is  much  more  fundamental, 
have  they  adhered  suiticiently  to  the  orighial  constitution 
to  be  considered  as  Christian  Churches  at  all  ?  Jesus 
Christ  \n\\  not  extend  his  presence  and  recognition  to  every 
thing  that  calls  itself  by  that  name,  and  allow  an  vmlimited 
"  discretionary  power"  as  to  its  most  fundamental  provis- 
ions. The  best  that  can  be  looked  for  is  that  He  will  per- 
haps also  exercise  a  discretionary  power ;  whUe  it  is  cer- 


240  CONSTITUTION    OF    THE 

tain  that  the  whole  procedure  must  be  regarded  as  utterly 
unauthorized. 

If  now  we  take  up  a  work  by  a  distinguished  clergyman 
of  the  Church  of  England  (the  author  of  "  The  Seven  Lamps 
of  Architecture"),  we  shall  find  hun.  wi-iting  as  follows, 
about  the  constitution  of  his  own  ecclesiastical  body :  "  It 
has  been  ingeniously  endeavored  to  make  baptism  a  sign 
of  admission  into  the  visible  Church,  but  absurdly  enough, 
for  we  know  that  half  the  baptized  people  m  the  world  are 
very  visible  rogues,  believing  neither  in  God  nor  devil,  and 
it  is  flat  blasphemy  to  call  them  visible  Christians."  And 
yet  if  we  ask  Mr.  Coleridge  by  what  right  mfant  baptism 
has  been  introduced  to  effect  this  radical  alteration  m  the 
constitution  of  his  Church,  in  reply,  he  says,  "  I  ask  with 
confidence  in  what  way  could  the  Church  have  exercised  a 
Bound  discretion  more  wisely,  piously,  and  effectively." ' 

We  may  perhaps  be  told  that  all  this  is  the  result,  not  of 
infant  baptism,  but  of  Church  and  State,  and  if  we  turn  to 
the  Episcopalians  in  this  country,  we  shall  unquestionably 
find  a  great  improvement.  But  still,  in  "  The  New  York 
Churchman"  will  be  found  an  article  written  a  short  time 
ago,  entitled,  "  Rights  of  the  Laity."  Speaking  of  these, 
the  author  says : 

"  What  are  their  rights  ?  I  take  this  diocese  as  an  ex- 
ample. Connection  of  the  loosest  kind  gives  a  layman,  no 
matter  what  may  be  his  opinions,  and  I  am  sorry  to  say 
hardly  any  matter  what  may  be  his  moral  and  reUgious 
character,  a  right  to  vote  for  wardens  and  vestrjnnen,  and 
a  right  to  be  a  warden  or  vestryman.  Every  such  person 
is  eligible  to  membership  of  the  Diocesan  or  General  Con- 
vention, to  a  seat  in  the  Diocesan,  standing  committee,  and 
'  On  Baptism,  Aids  to  Reflection. 


EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.  241 

every  appointment  in  the  gift  of  either  Convention,  These 
rights  are  secured  by  constitutions  and  canons,  which  can 
not  be  altered  without  the  consent  of  the  laity."  Such  are 
some  of  the  results  of  "  this  sound  discretion,  wisely,  pi- 
ously, and  eifectually  exercised." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  essential  principle  of  Church  con- 
stitution with  the  Baptists,  is  the  admission  only  of  persons 
baptized,  upon  a  credible  profession  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ, 
in  the  habit  of  assembling  for  worship  and  ordinances. 
This  is,  we  have  seen,  identically  that  of  the  primitive 
churches — the  bodies  to  which  Christ  promised  his  presence 
and  blessmg  to  the  end  of  time.  And  when  Coleridge, 
himself,  "  inclines  to  this  view  as  the  more  Scriptural,  *  and 
Neander  and  Augusti  are  certain  of  it,  can  it  be  said  that 
infiint  baptism  is  not  mjurious  as  well  as  erroneous? 

But  the  question  is  not  merely  whether  any  Church  has, 
or  has  not  exercised  her  discretionary  power  wisely  and  pi- 
ously. It  is  something  far  more  grave,  even  whether  she 
has  any  discretionary  power  at  all  like  that  claimed,  to  make 
and  unmake  constitutions,  and  whether  the  usurpation  of 
such  a  power  is  not  injurious  ? 

This  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  all  questions,  because, 
in  fact,  it  bears  most  directly  upon  the  Divine  authority  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  his  Apostles,  to  institute  a  form  of  organi- 
zation beyond  the  control  and  authority  of  after  ages  ;  to 
institute  a  permanent  visible  body  of  Christians.  Pedo- 
baptism  thus  maintained,  says  m  effect,  that  Christians  now 
are  just  as  wise,  and  have  as  much  power  to  alter  things,  as 
Christ  had  to  establish  them.  And  this,  while  it  may  seem 
at  first  view  to  be  merely  an  exaggerated  claim  of  Christ's 
presence,  or  an  undue  exaltation  of  the  Church  authority, 

'  "Works,  vol.  v-  p.  542.     Notes  oa  Robinson. 
11 


242  PURPOSES     AT    FIRST    BLENDED. 

which  were  bad  enough,  is  yet  so  much  worse  as  this,  that 
it  is  in  fact  a  lowering  do^n  of  the  Divine  authority,  of  the 
work  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles.  It  is  a  denial  of  the  per- 
manent character  of  all  Divine  institutions.  It  says  in  ef- 
fect, and  Bunsen  almost  says  it  in  words,  "  true  we  are  poor 
fallible  creatures,  nevertheless,  by  the  lights  of  experience 
and  Church  history,  Ave  are  able  in  this  age  of  reconstruc- 
tion to  fashion  a  constitution  not  merely  for  the  ideal  Church 
of  the  future,  but  for  the  actual  Chxwch  of  the  present,  that 
shall  be  an  improvement  \ipon  the  original."  Covered  up 
in  words  that  deceive  even  those  who  use  them,  this  is  the 
real  point  which  is  now  ultimately  involved  in  the  theory 
of  these  modern  advocates  of  infant  baptism,  on  the  groimd 
of  a  discretionary  power.  All  who  attentively  consider 
Coleridge's  ideas,  and  those  which  have  been  in  Germany 
at  the  root  of  this  whole  argument,  \ri{\  perceive  that  these 
are  not  merely  theoretic  inferences,  but  most  practical  and 
vital  facts.  The  tendency  of  the  Avhole  is  beyond  what  its 
authors  j^^i'f^i^'S,  to  diminish  the  supreme  authority  and 
Divine  perfection  of  original  Christianity,  so  far  as  the  foiin- 
ation  of  a  church  is  concerned,  and  by  a  theory  of  develop- 
ment, cautiously  let  down  this  religion  to  rest  upon  a  found- 
ation of  naturalism  in  place  of  super-naturalism. 

True,  the  entering  wedge  is  here  inserted  by  the  feather 
end.  It  is  supposed  that  baptism  was  "  originally  intended 
to  answer  several  purposes,  which  purposes  at  its  first  insti- 
tution were  blended  in  resj^ect  of  time,  but  which  afterward 
by  change  of  circumstance,  were  necessarily  disimited,  as 
when  for  uistance  a  large  and  ever-increasing  proportion  of 
the  Christian  Church,  or  those  who  at  least  bore  the  Chris- 
tian name,  were  of  Christian  parents." 

Was  baptism  then  designed  to  answer  several  purposes  at 


HOW     DISUNITED.  243 

first  blended  in  point  of  time,  but  afterward  disunited  ? 
The  supposition  is  hapj^ily  baseless.  If  true,  it  would  re- 
flect upon  the  prescience  of  the  founder  of  Christianity. 
There  were  surely  just  as  large  a  proportion  of  childi-en 
belonging  to  the  first  Christians  as  there  are  belonging  to 
Christians  now.  There  is  no  change  of  circumstance  in 
that  particular.  True,  they  were  not  then  considered  fit 
to  become  members  of  the  visible  Church,  or  in  this 
sense  to  "  bear  the  Christian  name."  Yet  that  bemg  the 
effect  of  the  introduction  of  infant  baptism  could  not  be  the 
cause  of  it.  But  those  baptized  seem  to  have  been  even 
chiefly  heads  of  families,  and  therefore  as  large,  if  not  a 
larger  proportion  of  children  were  then  connected  with 
Christianity  by  family  ties,  than  later.  Nor  did  it  originally 
matter,  so  far  as  Church  membershij)  was  concerned,  Avhose 
children  they  were,  for  until  they  became  truly  pious,  they 
were  never  baptized.  All,  whether  descended  from  Chris- 
tian parents  or  heathen,  were  then  baptized  m  the  same 
way,  and  on  the  same  principles.  There  was,  and  could  be 
no  change  affecting  the  object  of  this  ordinance. 

But  Coleridge  proceeds  :  "  One  purpose  of  baptism  was 
the  making  it  publicly  manifest,  first,  what  individuals  were 
to  be  regarded  by  the  world  as  belonging  to  the  visible 
communion  of  Christians.  Secondly,  to  point  out  for  the 
Church  itself  those  that  were  entitled  to  that  especial  dear- 
ness,  that  watchful  disciplinary  love  and  loiing-kuidness, 
which,  over  and  above  the  duties  of  philanthropy  and  uni- 
vei'sal  charity,  Christ  himself  has  enjomed  in  the  new  com- 
mandment." 

If  we  should  admit  aU  this,  what  has  it  to  do  with  the 
question  ?  -If  the  children  of  believers  were  to  be  baptized 
as  entitled  to  this  "  especial  dearness"  and  disciplinary  love 


244  COLEEIDGES'     VIEW. 

of  the  Church,  at  the  end  of  two  hundred  years ;  they 
ought  to  have  been  so  received  at  first.  Xothuig  is  more 
injurious  to  Christianity  than  by  baptism  pubUcly  to  declare 
to  the  world,  that  a  child  belongs  to  the  visible  commimion 
of  Christians,  because  his  father  is  a  pioiis  man,  if  he  turn 
out  a  reprobate.  And  so  also,  while  the  children  of  Chris- 
tians are  entitled  to  that  especial  dearness  and  Avatchful 
disciplinary  love  which  belong  to  them  as  children  of  pious 
parents,  yet  they  are  not  entitled  to  be  loved  even  by  their 
parents  as  Christians,  imtil  they  are  such,  and  manifest  the 
sensible  experiences  of  the  new  life.  And  so  in  regard  to 
the  relations  they  sustain  to  all  other  bemgs,  whether 
equals,  instructors,  or  pastors.  There  is  in  all  this,  no 
change  of  circumstances  at  all  affecting  the  ordmauce,  even 
if  the  parental  relation  had  not  existed  ui  the  days  of  the 
Apostles,  as  it  does  now.  The  history  of  Christ  blessing 
the  infants  is  so  recorded  as  to  leave  no  room  for  the  sup- 
position that  they  were  baptized.  There  must  have  been 
vast  multitudes  of  the  children  of  believing  parents^  in  the 
first  ages.  The  neglect  to  baptize  them  then,  and  the  insti- 
tution of  such  terms  as  they  could  not  possibly  comply 
with,  was  a  clear  decision  against  their  admissibility,  until 
they  became  Christians  by  choice.  So  that  infant  baptism 
is  even  in  direct  opposition  to  the  authority  of  our  Saviour. 
A  further  reason  advanced  is  the  most  remarkable  of  all. 
Coleridge  would  have  us  combine  with  the  above,  "  the  ne- 
cessity of  checking  the  superstitious  abuse  of  the  baptismal 
rite  ;"  that  is,  "  the  importance  of  preventing  the  ceremony 
irom  being  regarded  as  other  and  more  than  a  mere  cere- 
mony." Who  does  not  know,  that  as  infant  baptism  was 
never  current  until  it  was  supposed  to  be  necessary  to  sal- 
>  1  Cor.  vu.  14. 


INTOLERABLE    VIEW     OF     GOD.  245 

vation,  so  it  became  the  great  evidence,  witness,  and  proof, 
to  after  ages,  of  this  the  most  gigantic  error  of  corrupt  re- 
ligion? It  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  Coleridge  could 
have  been  quite  sincere  in  penning  a  senthnent  such  as  this, 
for  in  his  "  Notes  on  Jeremy  Taylor,"  he  says : 

"  Xow  this  is  the  strongest  argument  of  all  against  in- 
fant baptism,  and  that  which  alone  weighed  at  one  time 
with  me  ;  namely,  that  it  suj^poses  and  most  certainly  en- 
courages a  belief  concerning  a  God  the  most  blasphemous 
and  intolerable^''''  even  that  the  want  of  it  may  occasion 
their  "  eternal  loss."  '  Neander  not  only  sustains  this,  but 
says,  alluding  to  the  time  when  infant  baptism  began  to  be 
advocated,  that  "  now  *  *  *  the  error  became  more  firmly 
established,  that  without  external  baptism  no  one  could  be 
delivered  from  inherent  guUt,  or  raised  to  eternal  life,  and 
when  the  notion  of  a  magical  influence  or  charm  connected 
with  the  sacraments,  continually  gained  ground,  the  theory 
was  finally  evolved,  of  the  unconditional  necessity  of  infant 
baptism."  Certainly  nothmg  so  favored  the  idea  of  "  a 
magical  influence  or  charm"  connected  with  the  sacraments  ; 
nothing  so  naturally  and  inevitably  caused  this  notion  to 
gain  ground,  as  that  very  administration  of  baptism  to  in- 
fants, which  Coleridge  declares  was  piously  and  wisely  intro- 
duced from  its  obvious  tendency  to  have  the  opjjosite 
effect !  He  does  indeed  admit  that,  by  an  "  imforeseen 
accident,"  wormwood  was  "  afterward  cast  into  the  sweet 
waters  of  this  fountain,  and  made  them  like  the  waters  of 
Marah,  too  bitter  to  be  drank,"  But  he  does  not  admit 
half  their  native  bitterness,  as  it  ought  to  be  admitted, 
and  they  certainly  have  been  pretty  extensively  drank, 
however  bitter,  until  within  the  last  hundred  years. 
'  "Works,  vol.  V.  p.  192.     Harper. 


246  DK.     BUSHNELL. 

§  IL     Dr.  Bushnell's  Yiews  of  Infant  Baptism. 

In  the  year  1847,  the  Massachusetts  Sabbath  School  So- 
ciety piiMished  two  "  Discoiirses  on  Christian  Nurture,"  by 
Dr.  Bushnell.  Tliey  contained  what  was  considered  quite 
an  original  line  of  argmnent  hi  favor  of  infant  baptism,  and 
were  read  first  of  all  before  the  Hartford  Association 
which  body  requested  the  author  to  publish  them.  Aftei 
this,  they  were  submitted  to  the  Executive  Coimnittee  of  the 
above  Society,  read  by  every  member,  and  re-read  until  the 
pajjer  Avas  considerably  worn ;  corrected  verbally  by  the 
author,  at  their  request,  and,  approved,  sanctioned,  and  en- 
dorsed by  them,  were  finally  published  by  the  Society. 

A  Baptist  neA\'spaper  in  Boston  first  called  attention  to 
the  remarkable  character  of  this  little  work,  as  a  defense 
of  infant  bajitism  at  the  expense  of  evangelical  prmciples. 
Dr.  Tyler,  the  senior  Professor  of  a  neighbormg  Congrega- 
tional Theological  Seminary,  after  a  time,  wrote  a  review 
of  it,  declaring  it  full  of  "  dangerous  tendencies ;"  and  at 
last  the  Society  itself,  without  retracting  any  thing,  resolved 
"  to  suspend  the  sale  of  it,  without  publicity."  This  in- 
duced Dr.  BushneU  to  publish  "  An  Argument  in  favor  of 
the  Discourses,"  etc.,  which  finally  he  republished  with  the 
discourses  themselves. 

Dr.  Bushnell's  want  of  controversial  tact  has  no  doubt 
much  hmdered  the  spread  of  his  theoiy,  for  in  vuidicating 
himself  from  the  charge  of  heresy,  he  assumes  positions  and 
produces  arguments  exen  more  ofiensive  to  his  opponents 
than  the  point  he  wishes  to  prove.  His  system,  too,  has 
carried  him  far,  very  far ;  for  the  deeply  logical  structure 
of  his  mind,  and  the  frankness  of  his  character,  hav^e  led 
him  to  avoid  all  shirking  of  legitimate  consequences.     But 


NO     SETTLED    THEORY.  247 

this  is,  in  its  essence,  the  mildest  and  most  moderate  theory 
of  infant  baptism  ever  exhibited  ;  the  least  offensive  to 
others,  the  most  simple,  and  consistent  with  itself.  If  it 
will  not  stand,  notlung  will.  Dr.  Tyler's  letter  in  reply  to 
it,  is  but  an  argument  for  Baptist  principles  from  beginning 
to  end. 

Dr.  Bushnell,  indeed,  has,  beyond  any  other  wiiter  on 
this  subject,  resolved  infant  baptism  back  mto  the  principles 
on  which  it  essentially  rests.  He  has  even  attempted  to  do 
the  same  in  regard  to  the  views  of  theu'  oj)ponents,  thus 
enabling  us  to  contrast,  Math  the  greatest  accuracy,  Pedo- 
baptist  and  Baptist  theories  of  Church  membership. 

There  are  several  valuable  concessions  brought  out  in 
these  wi'itings,  most  important  as  arising  from  discourses 
originally  intended  against  the  Baptists,  and  yet  made  the 
more  freely,  from  the  fact  that,  after  the  first  publication, 
Dr.  Bushnell's  particular  opponent  was  hunself  a  Pedobap- 
tist.  Thus,  for  instance,  it  was  admitted  that  "  no  settled 
opinion  on  the  subject  of  infant  baptism  and  of  Christian 
nurture  has  ever  been  attained  to.  Between  the  standard 
Protestant  wi-iters  themselves  there  has  been  no  agreement. 
What  is  the  covenant  ?  What  meaning  and  force  has  it  ? 
Here  we  have  never  agreed,  and  do  not  now.  The  BajJtists 
have  pushed  us  for  an  answer,  we  have  given  them  many 
answers,  hut  never  any  single  ansioer  in  xohich  loe  could 
agree  among  owselves.''''^ 

He  even  shows  that  Dr.  Hopkins  msisted  on  "  the  essen- 
tial absurdity  of  infmt  baptism  as  commonly  practiced,"  "^ 
and  says,  "  There  is  little  reason  to  wonder  that  the  Bap- 
tists should  reject  infant  baptism  Avhen  we  hold  it  oursehes 

'  Views  of  Christian  Nurture  and  Subjects  Adjacent  thereto,  pp.  56-61. 
*  Page  71. 


24y  EVANGELICAL  CHURCHES. 

only  as  a  dead  tradition,  separated  from  any  rational  mean- 
ing or  use.  And  if  we  stand  upon  the  footing  of  absolute 
individualism,  it  follows  irresistibly,  as  any  child  may  see, 
that  they  are  right  in  requiring  e\ddence  of  actual  faith 
previous  to  baptism.'  He  admits  that  they  have  all  been 
holding  infant  baptism  as  an  empty  tradition,  a  form,  the 
?oul  of  which  is  evaporated  and  lost,  giving  its  rejectors  the 
strongest  argument  possible  against  it.  And  he  approvingly 
quotes  Dr.  Nevins  as  declaring,  in  despair  and  horror,  that 
the  evangelical  Puritanism  of  New  England  "  has  tnade  \i.s 
all  Baptists  in  theory,  v)hich  is  the  same  as  to  say  that  we 
ought  to  he  so  in  fact.'''' "^  We  have  long  believed  all  that 
is  here  stated ;  that  the  Congregational  Churches  of  New 
England,  by  just  so  much  as  they  differ  from  the  old  Uni- 
tarian Churches,  and  the  Presbyterian  Churches,  since  the 
time  of  Tennant,  were  so  far  "  Baptist  in  theory  ;"  and  on 
this  ground  it  is  that  Baptists  have  felt  less  interest  than,  per- 
haps, they  otherwise  would,  and  ouglit  to  have  done,  in  see- 
ing them  become  so  "  m  tact."  We  have  long  seen  that 
infmt  baptism  was  among  them  but  an  empty  tradition,  a 
form,  the  soul  of  which  had  evaporated  ;  that  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Evangelical  Congregationalists  of  New  England, 
in  regard  to  a  regenerate  church-membership,  it  follows  ir- 
resistibly, as  any  child  may  see,  that  Baptists  are  right  in 
requu'ing  evidence  of  actual  faith  previous  to  bajDtism.  In 
fact,  though  we  would  not  have  introduced  the  words  our- 
selves in  regard  to  an  institution  any  Christian  brethren 
hold  sacred,  yet  as  they  have  done  this,  we  may  quote  them, 
and  admit  "  the  essential  absurdity"  of  infant  baptism,  as 
commonly  practiced,  from  the  time  of  Dr.  Hopkins  doA\Ti  to 
Dr.  Bushnell ;  and  that  the  New  England  Pedobaptists 
'  Page  82.  2  Page  96. 


ALL     BAPTIST     IN     TUEORY.  249 

have  not  been  able,  in  the  conrse  of  two  hundred  years,  to 
attam  to  any  scheme  of  mfant  baptism,  or  settled  opinion 
of  its  gromid  and  import,  consistent  with  their  own  writers, 
or  even  consistent  -wdth  themselves.  All  this,  however,  we 
did  not  expect  to  have  seen  confessed  so  readily  in  "  An 
Argument"  in  favor  of  infant  baptism. 

Dr.  Bushnell  also  makes  a  still  more  pregnant  concession 
when  he  says  truly  enough,  we  doubt  not,  "  At  the  time  of 
my  settlement  in  the  mmistry,  the  council  came  near  reject- 
ing me,  because  I  could  say  nothing  more  positive  concern- 
ing infant  baptism." '  Even  now,  though  he  quotes  Scrip- 
ture, he  does  not  build  much  on  that,  and,  indeed,  treads 
so  very  gently  and  softly  on  it,  as  to  remmd  his  readers  of 
a  man  walking  on  what  he  suspects  to  be  rather  rotten  ice 
in  the  spring. 

He  brings  forward  the  case  of  "  household  baptisms,"  but 
admits  that  the  power  of  these  proof  texts  "  does  not  depend 
in  the  least  on  the  fact  that  there  were  children  ui  these 
households."  He  even  thinks  "  the  argument  for  infant 
baptism  rather  weakened  than  strengthened  by  the  supposi- 
tion that  there  were  infants  ;"  and  finally,  that  "  these  pas- 
sages *  *  *  certainly  do  not  p^-ove  infant  baptism  ui 
just  the  way  in  which  many  have  used  them  as  proof  texts." ' 

In  fact,  infant  baptism  with  him  does  not  rest  directly  on 
Scripture,  but  on  "  a  theory''''  of  Christian  nurture  ;  and  he 
tells  us  how  he  obtained  it.  After  relating  that  he  came 
near  being  rejected  for  not  beheving  in  it,  he  adds :  "  Aftei 
two  or  three  years  of  reflection,  I  came  upon  the  discovery 
that  aU  my  views  of  Christian  nurture  were  radically  defect- 
ive, and  even  false.  And  now  what  before  was  dark,  or 
even  absurd,  immediately  became  luminous  and  dignified."* 
•  Page  82.  «  Pages  29,  30.  "  3  Page  82. 


250  EDWARD'S    VIEWS 

These  views  we  will  examine  in  a  moment,  for  upon  this  aU 
turns  with  him.  He  tells  the  Congregationalists  that  some 
of  them  are  sunply  mdiiferent,  "  not  seemg  what  good  it  can 
do  the  child,  and  others  have  positive  theological  objections 
to  it."  But  it  is  his  "  settled  conviction  (now)  that  no  man 
ever  objected  to  infant  baptism  who  had  not,  at  the  bottom 
of  his  objections,  the  "  false  views"  which  create  so  great 
difficulty  in  sustaining  infant  baptism  in  our  (in  the  Con- 
gregational) Churches."'  In  a  word,  he  concedes  that, 
unless  the  "  Baptist  theory"  of  Christian  nurture,  ^.  e.,  the 
views  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  Whitefield,  and  the  whole 
evangelical  theory  of  the  New  England  Puritans,  have  been 
wi'ong  (for  he  admits  them  all  to  be  essentially  Baptist),  and 
his  theory  of  children  grooving  up  Christians  right,  infant 
baptism  is  an  "  essential  absurdity."  ^ 

We  desu-e,  then,  now  to  compare  the  Baptist  and  Pedo- 
baptist  theories  of  Church  membership  and  Christian  nurture, 
upon  which  the  whole  of  Dr.  Bushnell's  argument  rests ;  an 
argument  which  was,  it  is  true,  "  without  jDubHcity,"  droj^ped 
by  the  Committee  of  the  "  Massachusetts  Sabbath  School 
Society"  when  the  controversy  waxed  warm,  but  which  has 
been  publicly  "  approved^''  by  them,  and  never  repudiated. 
It  must,  at  least,  be  supposed  to  contain  the  doctrine  of 
infant  baptism,  as  they  would  like,  were  it  consistent,  to 
hold  it  forth,  and  is  the  only  ground  on  which  Dr.  Bushnell 
thinks  it  can  be  reasonably  held  at  all. 

The  whole  of  this  argument  rests  upon  these  two  errors ;  1 . 
It  makes  a  serious  mistake  as  to  what  really  is  the  Baptist 
theory  of  the  operations  of  Divine  grace.  2.  Much  of 
what  it  considers  as  belonging  exclusively  to  the  Pedobap- 
tist  theory,  our  own  principles  admit  and  embrace  quite  as 
1  Pages  38,  9.  2  Page  71. 


DESCRIBED.  251 

cordially  as  this,  rejecting  it  only  where  it  deviates  from 
the  truth. 

Dr.  Bushnell  thus  describes  the  "Baptist,"  or  (as  he 
sometiraes  calls  it),  "  Ictic  theory,"  or  that  of  "individual- 
ism," which  he  puts  in  contrast  with  his  own,  to  set  it  off 
to  a  better  advantage  : 

"  It  is  a  religion  that  begins  explosively,  raises  high 
fi-ames,  carries  Uttle  or  no  expansion,  and  after  the  day  is 
spent,  subsides  into  a  torpor,  *  *  *  j^  makes  nothing 
of  the  family,  and  the  Church,  and  the  organic  powers  God 
has  constituted  as  vehicles  of  grace.  It  takes  every  man 
as  if  he  had  existed  alone^  presumes  that  he  is  unreconciled 
to  God  until  he  has  undergone  some  sudden  and  explosive 
experience  in  adult  years,  or  after  the  age  of  reason ;  de- 
mands that  experience,  and  only  when  it  is  reached,  allows 
the  subject  to  be  an  heir  of  life.  Then  on  the  otlier  side 
or  that  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  very  act  or  ictus  by  which 
the  change  is  wrought,  is  isolated,  or  mdividualized,  so  as 
to  stand  m  no  connection  with  any  other  of  God's  means 
or  causes — an  epiphany  in  which  God  leaps  from  the  stars, 
or  some  place  above,  to  do  a  work  apart  from  all  system, 
or  connection  with  His  other  works.  Religion  is  thus  a 
kind  of  transcendental  matter,  which  belongs  on  the  out- 
side of  life,  and  has  no  part  hi  the  laws  by  which  life  is 
organized — a  miraculous  epidemic,  a  fire-ball  shot  from  the 
moon,  something  holy  because  it  is  from  God,  but  so  ex- 
traordinary, so  out  of  place  that  it  can  not  sufier  any  vital 
connection  with  tlie  ties,  and  causes,  and  forms,  and  habits, 
which  constitute  the  frame  of  our  history.  Hence  the  de- 
sultory, hard,  violent,  and  often  extravagant  or  erratic  char- 
acter it  manifests.  Hence  in  part  the  dreary  years  of 
decay,  and  dai'kness,  that  interspace  our  months  of  excite- 


252  THE    CHILD    TO     GEO"W     UP. 

ment  and  victory."  '  It  is  with  regret  that  we  see  such  a 
picture,  such  a  caricature,  drawn  of  the  Baptist  theory  of 
conversion.  It  is  true  he  puts  us  ia  respectable  company, 
and  paints  the  above,  not  as  the  description  of  Baptist 
views,  except  as  a  part  of  that  Congregational  puritanism 
advanced  by  Jonathan  Edwards,  "  all  Baptist  in  theory." 
We  leave  it  for  others  to  decide,  if  it  fairly  represents  the 
behef  of  the  Evangelical  'New  England  churches,  eithei 
Baptist  or  Congregational,  A^iewed  on  the  scale  of  the  last 
hundred  years.  It  would  be  almost  an  unfair  caricature, 
even  of  the  extreme  excitements  of  itinerant  evangelists — 
excitements,  not  arising  legitimately  out  of  any  theory — 
but  the  boisterous  jiassions  of  unruly  individuals,  tolerated 
indeed  for  a  time,  by  several  churches,  but  soon  over.  Sim- 
ilar excesses  have  arisen  in  all  ages  and  m  all  parts  of  the 
Avorld,  even  m  Catholic  as  well  as  Protestant  countries. 
The  Jansenists  have  exhibited  them  as  well  as  the  Metho- 
dists. They  are  a  phase  of  reaction  from  the  great  disease 
of  sin  and  all  religious  indifference,  and  ^Hl  exhibit  them- 
selves with  any  theory  while  human  nature  is  in  its  present 
disordered  state. 

The  true  Pedobaptist  theory  Dr.  Bushnell  thus  states  by 
way  of  contrast.     It  is, 

"  That  the  child  is  to  grow  up  a  Chkistiax. — In  other 
words,  the  aim,  effort,  and  expectation  should  be,  not  as  is 
commonly  assumed,  that  the  child  is  to  grow  up  in  sin,  to 
be  converted  after  he  comes  to  a  matiu'e  age,  but  that  he  is 
to  open  on  the  world,  as  one  that  is  spiritually  renewed, 
not  remembering  the  time  when  he  went  through  a  tech- 
nical experience,  but  seeming  rather  to  have  loved  what  is 
good,  from  his  earhest  years."  ^ 

'  Pages  68,  9.  '  Page  6. 


A     CHRISTIAX.  253 

This  theory  he  illustrates  as  follows : 

"  If  we  narrowly  examine  the  relation  of  parent  and  child, 
we  shall  not  fail  to  discover  sometlimg  Uke  a  law  of  organic 
connection,  as  regards  character,  subsisting  between  them. 
Such  a  connection  as  makes  it  easy  to  believe,  and  natural 
to  expect,  that  the  faith  of  the  one  will  be  propagated  in 
the  other.  Perhaps  I  should  rather  say  such  a  connection 
as  induces  the  con\action  that  the  character  of  one  is  actu- 
ally mcluded  in  that  of  the  other,  as  a  seed  is  formed  hi  the 
capsule,  and  being  there  matured  by  a  nuti'iment  derived 
from  the  stem  is  gradually  separated  from  it."  '     Page  18. 

*  Dr.  Bushnell  afterward  explains  his  meaning  as  follows :  "  I  take  the 
actings  of  the  parent  in  the  child,  both  before  and  after  birth,  for  as  far 
as  the  child's  will  or  individuality  are  concerned,  they  are  included  in  the 
same  category  of  passivity,  and  cover  them  both  by  the  same  term ;  call- 
ing them  '  wganic.''  Considering  next  this  organic  power  as  inhabited  by 
Christ,  and  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  exalted  thus  into  a  spiritual  state  above 
itself,  I  take  my  stand  at  the  birth  point  of  the  will  (not  of  the  body), 
and  there  I  say  that  the  Christian  child  ought  to  emerge  into  individual- 
ity, not  as  ripened  into  sin,  and  set  off  in  it,  but  as  one  that  is  regener- 
ated, quickened  unto  spiritual  life.  In  other  words  it  is  the  privilege  of 
the  Christian,  not  that  he  is  doomed  to  give  birth  to  a  tainted  life  and 
cease,  but  tliat  by  the  grace  of  God  dwelling  in  him,  and  in  the  child, 
fashioning  his  own  character,  as  an  organic  mold  for  the  child,  and  the 
child  to  a  plastic  conformity  with  the  mold  provided,  he  may  set  forth  the 
child  into  life,  as  a  seed  after  Mm — one  that  is  prepared  unto  a  godly  life, 
by  causes  prior  to  his  own  will,  that  is,  by  causes  metaphysically  organic. 
Thus  every  thing  previous  to  the  will  falls  into  one  and  the  same  cate- 
gory. *  *  *  At  some  time,  sooner  or  later,  but  only  by  a  gradual 
transition,  he  comes  into  his  own  will,  which  theologically  speaking,  is 
the  time  of  his  birth  as  a  moral  subject  of  God's  government ;  and  if  he 
takes  up  life,  as  a  corrupted  subject,  so  he  may  and  ought  also  to  take  it 
up,  as  a  renewed  subject,  that  is,  to  grow  up  as  a  Ohristian."  i 

(1)  Page  94. 


254  THE    BAPTIST     TUEORY. 

"We  will  not  just  here  examine  very  deeply  into  Dr.  Bush- 
neU's  theory.  Suppose  it  correct,  in  fact,  that  many  chil- 
dren are  brought  to  the  saving  knowledge  of  God  at  a 
very  early  age ;  he  still  calls  them  "  regenerated ;''"'  sup- 
pose that  through  early  training,  while  there  was,  as  Dr, 
B.  would  say,  a  metaphysical  organic  connection  between 
the  j^arent  and  child,  this  should  be  far  more  generally  the 
case  witli  the  children  of  pious,  than  of  irreligious  parents ; 
or  suppose  even  that  sometimes  the  physical  and  metaphy- 
sical organization  of  the  child  of  irreligious  parents,  shall 
not  be  so  favorable  to  this  early  development  of  piety,  as 
in  the  child  of  pious  parents.  When  then  ?  Let  us  be- 
Heve  all  this,  and  we  do  believe  it ;  stiU  what  is  there  in  it, 
at  all  opposed  to  the  Baptist  theory  ? 

"We  may  believe  that  Jeremiah  was  sanctified  from  the 
womb,  that  Samuel  "  grew  up"  so  piously  from  earliest  in- 
fancy that  he  was  never  sensible  afterward  of  any  sudden 
or  violent  change.  It  may  have  been  so  with  John  the 
Baptist  and  with  Timothy.  It  may  have  been,  and  prob- 
ably was  in  great  part,  through  pious  training  and  influences 
on  the  part  of  pious  parents,  that  all  this  took  place  and 
at  so  early  an  age.  It  is  certainly  implied  that  in  the  case 
of  Timothy  it  was.  Let  all  this  be  granted,  and  what  then  ? 
Wliere  does  it  touch  the  Baptist  theory  ? 

Dr.  Bushnell  could  only  reply,  1.  That  the  Baptist  theory 
of  Church  membership  teaches  that  no  persons  are  fit  for 
the  Church  until  they  manifest  a  sensible  religious  experi- 
ence, and  2.  It  "  tells  the  child  that  nothing  but  sin  can  be 
expected  of  him,  presumes  that  he  will  not  grow  to  a  be- 
liever, or  be  eventually  sanctified  through  his  parent's  faith, 
and  therefore  that  the  rite  of  baptism  is  inappropriate." ' 
'  Pages  28,  9. 


SENSIBLE    EXPERIENCES.  255 

1.  As  to  the  first,  it  is  indeed  and  exactly  true  that,  ac- 
cording to  the  Baptist  theory,  none  are  proper  subjects  for 
Church  membership  until  they  manifest  a  sensible  religious 
experience.  But  Dr.  B.  seems  to  confound  two  things  that 
differ  mightily  :  the  sensible  experiences  of  grace,  and  "  ex- 
plosive conversion,"  or  at  least  "  sensible  conversion."  A 
person  may  be  sensible  of  being  in  a  gracious  state  every 
day,  without  remembering  possibly  when  such  experiences 
first  began  to  da^^m  upon  him.  With  some,  these  things 
are  more  gradual  m  their  manifestations,  even  in  riper  years, 
than  vnth  others  ;  much  more  when  they  take  place  in  the 
dawnings  of  life. 

The  Baptist  theory  of  "  effectual  calling"  does  not  depend 
in  whole  or  in  part  on  token  it  takes  place.  It  only  asserts 
that  there  must  be  credible  manifestations  of  its  ha^Tiig 
taken  place  previous  to  Church  membership.  It  is  not  in- 
consistent Avith  the  Baptist  theory  or  practice  to  baptize  a 
person  twenty  years  after  he  shall  have  been  converted,  if 
he  has  neglected  it  till  then.  We  object,  as  much  as  Dr. 
Bushnell  can  do,  to  the  taking  nothing  for  evidence  of 
being  in  a  state  of  gi-ace  but  "  an  explosive  experience." 
We  believe,  practically,  that  many  a  true  child  of  grace  is 
long  kept  in  doubt  as  to  his  acceptance  with  God,  by  look- 
ing for  some  more  sudden,  violent  and  "  angular"  conver- 
sion than  m  the  nature  of  things  he  can  ever  realize. 

But  we  also  think  that,  should  Dr.  Bushnell's  statements 
spread  and  become  popular,  there  would  be  another  danger 
more  to  be  dreaded,  one  pointed  out  very  ably  by  Dr.  Ty- 
ler in  his  letter,  i.  e.,  that  of  the  children  of  pious  parents, 
supposing  that  usually  they  were  not  to  expect  to  pass 
through  any  sensible  conversion,  but  ought  to  "  take  it  for 
granted"  they  were  in  a  state  of  "  effectual  calling"  because 


256  PEESUMPTIONS      OF 

their  parents  were  pious  and  liad  had  them  baptized.  Dr. 
Bushnell  has  mistaken  the  extreme  revival  theory  of  "  ex- 
plosive conversions"  for  the  Baptist  theory,  which  only  in- 
sists ujDon  sensible  experiences  of  being  in  a  state  of  grace. 
But  certain  it  is,  if  he  wants  to  get  rid  of  a  sensible  present 
experience  of  grace,  as  a  necessary  prerequisite  to  fuU 
Chui-ch  membersliip,  he  would  do  the  Congregational 
Churches  of  New  England  the  most  pernicious  evil  that  has 
been  accomplished  m  a  hundred  years.  We  do  not  under- 
stand lum  thus.  He  cei'tamly  speaks  of  all  those  he  caUs 
quickened  into  spiritual  life  as  "  regenerated.'''' '  But  some 
of  his  illustrations  may  seem  rather  unguarded. 

2.  But  Dr.  Bushnell  argues  further  (to  quote  his  own  lan- 
guage), that  "  It  must  be  jjresumed  either  that  the  child 
will  grow  up  a  believer,  or  that  he  wiU  not ;  the  Baptist  pre- 
sumes that  he  will  not,  that  nothing  but  sm  can  be  expected 
of  him,  and  therefore  declares  baptism  inappropriate."''  "We 
suppose  Dr.  Bushnell  and  the  Massachusetts  Sabbath  School 
Committee  meant  that  by  declining  to  baptize  theni^  we  say 
so  in  eflect  to  the  child.  And,  therefore,  fighting  against 
this  supposed  Baptist  theory.  Dr.  BushneU  says,  "  Who, 
then,  has  told  you  that  the  child  can  not  have  the  new  heart 
of  which  you  speak  ?"  And  we  ask,  who  has  told  Dr.  Bush- 
nell that  the  Baptist  presumes,  in  declining  to  baptize  an  in- 
fmt,  that  he  will  not  grow  up  a  beUever,  or  that  he  may  not 
even  now  possibly  be  sanctified  from  the  womb  ?  And  who 
told  him  that  God  presumes  that  he  Avill  ?  In  our  view  the 
Supreme  Being  does  not  presume  about  the  matter,  for  he 
Jcnoios,  and  so,  on  the  other  hand,  as  we  do  not  pretend  to 
know,  neither  do  yfo,  presume  to  decide,  or  rather  decide  to 
presume,  about  the  matter;  but  as  to  his  joining  the  Church, 
'  Pag©  94.  *  '  Page  28,  9. 


INFAKT    BAPTISM,  257 

wait  the  developments  and  manifestations  He  gives.  In 
om-  view  it  would  indeed  be  a  presimiption  to  take  that 
universally  for  granted  which  is,  as  all  must  admit,  practical- 
ly, so  very  doubtful.  Yet  this  is  the  very  essence  of  the 
Pedobaptist  theory.  The  whole  philosophy  of  it  is  a  pre- 
suming to  take  for  granted  that  in  every  case  the  child  loill 
grow  %(p  a  Christian  from  its  very  birth.  This  is  the  height 
of  presumption.  It  assumes  always  a  conjunction  of  three 
things,  no   one   of  which  can    be   shown  to   occur  at   all. 

1.  That    the   parent    shall    perfectly    discharge   his    duty. 

2.  That  the  Church   shall  also  perfectly  do  the  same ;   and, 

3.  That  if  both  of  these  do  thus,  God  will  in  every  case  not 
only  save  that  child  at  last,  but  effectually  call  it  in  earliest 
infmcy ;  so  that  it  shall  "  open  on  the  world  spiritually  re- 
newed, not  remembering  the  time  when  it  went  through  a 
technical  experience."  Now  this  is  the  philosophy,  the  ul- 
timate essence  of  infant  baptism,  the  innate  principle  of  the 
Pedobaptist  theory.  It  takes  for  granted  that  m  the  case 
of  every  child  baptized,  the  two  former,  or  human  condi- 
tions will  be  perfectly  fulfilled,  and  then  it  further  presumes 
that  the  third  or  divine  result  will  not  only  eventually  but 
immediately  follow.  This  we  think  the  very  extreme  of 
presunung. 

And  here  we  must  allow  Dr.  Tylei",  a  Pedobaptist  profess- 
or of  Theology,  to  demohsh,  in  his  own  style,  some  of  the 
presumptions  of  infant  baj^tism.  Speaking  of  Christian 
Pedobaptist  parents,  in  his  letter  to  Dr.  Buslmell,  he  says : 

"  If  God  had  promised  to  save  all  their  children,  on  con- 
dition of  entire  fixithfulness  on  their  part,  they  could  not 
appropriate  the  promise  to  themselves,  for  they  know  they 
are  not  entirely  faithful,  but  come  very  far  short  of  their 
duty. 


258  r>E.     TYLER     ON 

"  And  here  permit  me  to  ask,  when  you  maintam  that  if 
parents  were  faithful,  they  might  expect  to  see  their  chil- 
dren (as  a  general  thing  at  least)  grow  up  Christians  from 
their  earliest  childhood,  what  degree  of  fvithfulness  do 
you  consider  necessary  to  msure  this  result  ?  Must  they  be 
sinlessly  perfect  ?  If  so,  what  you  have  written  is  labor 
lost,  for  there  are  no  such  j^arents.  But  if  you  mean  a  de- 
gree of  faithfulness  short  of  smless  perfection,  how  great 
must  it  be  ?  How  faithful  must  a  sinful,  erring  parent  be, 
to  render  it  certam  that  God  will  change  the  hearts  of  his 
children,  at  the  very  begmning  of  life,  before  they  are  old 
enough  to  receive  any  verbal  mstruction  ? 

"  There  are  many  parents  who  are  eminently  pious,  and 
whose  piety  shines  in  nothing  more  conspicuously  than  in 
the  education  of  their  children.  But  they  see  no  evidence 
that  their  children  are  pious.  On  the  contrary,  they  think 
they  see  decisive  evidence  that  they  are  not." 

As  to  the  fulfillment  of  the  conditions  on  the  part  of  the 
Church,  Dr.  Tyler  does  not  speak.  We  may  beUeve  they 
are  not  better  performed  than  those  of  the  parents.  But 
in  relation  to  the  third  pomt,  i.  e.,  the  certainty  of  unmedi- 
ate  divuie  renewal,  he  says :  "  Now  the  question  is,  has 
God  expHcitly  informed  us  in  his  word,  that  he  ^\il\  thus 
early  rencAv  the  hearts  of  our  children,  if  we  will  faithfully 
discharge  our  parental  duties  ?  Where  is  any  such  explicit 
promise  to  be  found  ?  The  duty  of  the  Christian  j^arent  is 
analogous  to  that  of  the  Christian  minister.  *  *  *  *  it  is 
true  that  the  faithful  minister  has  reason  to  hope  and  be- 
lieve that  he  will  not  labor  in  vain.  But  when,  how,  and  to 
what  extent  God  will  cro'mi  his  labors  with  success,  he  has 
no  means  of  determining.  God  is  a  holy  Sovereign. 
'  Therefore  hath  he  mercy  on  whom  he  will  have  mercy.' 


PAEEXTAL     FAITHB  ULXESS.  259 

It  is  true,  he  employs  means,  and  he  gives  efficacy  to  the 
means  of  his  own  a|)|)ointment ;  but  he  does  it  m  his  own 
way  and  in  his  own  lime,  and  such  degrees  as  seem  good  ua 
his  sight.  It  is  not  always  true  that  the  labors  of  the  most 
faithlul  minister  are  crowned  with  the  greatest  success. 
Many  more  souls  seem  to  have  been  converted  mider  the 
preaching  of  Paul  than  nnder  the  preaching  of  Christ. 
But  surely  Paul  was  not  more  faithful  than  his  Master. 
The  great  aim  of  the  Christian  minister  should  be  to  do  his 
duty,  and  to  leave  the  results  with  God." 

We  see  the  two  theories  contrasted ;  we  see  the  philos- 
ophy of  the  two  systems.  It  now  only  remains  that  we 
trace  some  of  the  chief  difficulties  and  injuries  to  vital 
religion,  that  have  naturally  and  necessarily  groAvn  out  of 
the  system  of  infant  bajjtism,  as  they  are  exhibited  by  Dr. 
Bushnell  and  Dr.  Tyler.  It  would  really  seem,  from  the 
concessions  of  these  two  divines,  taken  together,  that  it  is 
impossible  to  evolve  any  theory  of  uifant  baptism  that  mil 
not,  sooner  or  later,  strangle  all  spiritual  religion  in  the 
womb.  We  are  far  enough  from  saying  that  practically  it 
has  always  done  so.  In  New  England,  the  Congregational 
Churches  have  unquestionably  escaped  or  emerged  from  this 
fate,  "  so  as  by  fire."  But  then  all  this  is  accounted  for 
when  we  are  told,  and  told  truly,  that  they  have  "  all  be- 
come Baptists  ill  theory,"  and  ought  in  all  consistency  "  to 
become  so  in  fact."  ' 

But,  viewed  historically,  what  a  category  of  errors  has 
infant  baptism  introduced,  according  to  Dr.  Bushuell's  own 
showing,  until,  disgusted  with  the  theme,  he  skips  over  the 
period  from  Gregory  Nazienzen,  a.d.  350,  to  Luther,  sun- 
ply  saying :  "  To  follow  the  Church  into  all  the  absurd 
•  Page  96. 


260  DR.     BUSHXELL    S 

opinions  on  this  subject  tlirongh  whicli  s'lie  strayed  for 
long  ages,  is  unnecessary.  We  descend  immediately  to  the 
Reformation."  '  But  even  although  this  might  aj^pear  a 
pretty  quick  leap  down  the  j^ages  of  history,  it  does  not 
seem  to  carry  him  to  the  bottom  of  the  difficulty,  of  find- 
ing one  consistent  theory  of  infant  baptism.  For  Dr.  Bush- 
nell  declares  that  "here  we  shall  find  that  no  settled  opinion 
on  infant  haptism  and-  of  Christian  nv.rture  has  ever  been 
attained  to.  Between  Protestant  standard  writers  them- 
selves there  has  been  no  agreement."  "  Owen  uses  lan- 
guage hardly  reconcilable  with  Calvin,  unless  it  can  be 
shown  either  that  all  infants  who  die  are  elect,  or  that  all 
elect  infants  die." 

Lxither,  the  German  Reformed  Church,  and  the  Church 
of  England,  throw  out  opinions  of  the  efficacy  of  this  insti- 
tution, that  "  convey  a  strong  scent  of  the  old  errors  of 
Romanism.   *   *   *   We  pass  the  sea." 

But  "  the  New  England  divines  have  never  agreed,  and 
do  not  ?20«',  as  to  what  the  covenant  is,  what  meaning  and 
force  it  has."  They  "  had  been  accustomed  in  Europe  to 
State  Churches,  in  which  baptism  practically  gave  a  title  to 
complete  membership."  But  the  Cambridge  Platform  of 
1649  "was  on  a  different  principle,  allowing  none  to  be 
members  save  such  as  gave  evidence  of  spiritually  renewed 
character."  Thus  occurred  what  was  "more  uncomfortable 
to  most  Christians  of  that  age  than  we  can  well  imagme ; 
the  children  of  their  sons  and  of  their  daughters  often 
could  not  be  baptized."  Hence,  in  1662,  the  half-covenant 
system,  a  "  mongrel  scheme ;"  the  result  of  which  was 
"  undoubtedly  bad  in  theory,  as  it  j^roved  to  be  in  its  prac- 
tical eflects."  ^ 

'  Page  56.  2  Pages  5'7-62. 


HISTORY     OF     THEOEIES.  261 

"  Mr.  Stoddard  took  the  far  more  dignified  and  consist- 
ent ground"  that  both  sacraments  are  to  be  regarded  as 
means  of  grace  offered  to  all  of  moral  hfe.  "  Under  the 
combined  influence  of  these  two  changes,  or  partly  by  force 
of  other  causes,  religion  fell  into  a  serious  and  alarming 
state  of  decline.  Making  every  allowance  for  exaggera- 
tions, there  was  evidently  a  serious  decline  of  piety  in  the 
Church."     In  fact,  Massachusetts  became  Unitarian.* 

Such  have  been  the  results  of  the  Pedobaptist  systems, 
one  after  another.  And  yet  because  Jonathan  Edwards 
"  brings  them  round  at  length  unconsciously  to  the  Baptist 
theory,"  as  the  only  remedy,  his  system  is  caricatured  as 
one  of  "  extreme  individualism,"  etc.  The  remarkable  part 
of  this  is  not  that  the  above  statements  are  true,  but  that 
they  are  so  plainly  admitted  and  proved  in  an  argument  in 
favor  of  infant  baptism.  It  was  a  controversy  between  two 
Pedobaptists,  and  hence  the  concessions  both  have  made 
unthinkmgly  to  the  truth  of  our  principles. 

But  now  let  us  observe  the  "  dangerous  tendencies"  of 
infant  baptism  as  exhibited  in  the  mind  and  language  of  Dr. 
Bushnell  himself  It  would  seem  that,  like  Dr.  Alexander, 
he  came  near  being  a  Baptist  himself  at  one  time :  so  near 
that,  even  now,  when  glancing  at  the  relation  of  his  doctrine 
to  the  Baptist  denomination,  he  thinks  "  it  may  not  be  in- 
delicate to  allude  to  his  o^vn  mental  experience ;"  and  tells 
us  how  near  he  came  to  "  being  rejected  by  the  council  at 
his  settlement,"  because  he  could  say  "  nothing  more  posi- 
tive respecting  mfant  baptism."  Such  cases  are  more  com- 
mon than  Dr.  B.  thinks,  but  there  is  nothing  alarming  m 
this,  as  none  of  them  are  quite  rejected.  It  is  only  those 
who  reject  infant  baptism  altogether,  and  are  baptized  on  a 
>  Page  64. 


262  DR.   bush:n'ell's 

profession  of  their  faith,  that  are  altogether  refused.  On 
the  contrary,  they  are  ordained  as  Congregationalists.  They 
baptize  a  few  children,  and  then  are  di-iven,  by  logical 
necessity,  to  find  some  defense  for  themselves,  and  then, 
naturally  enough,  "  what  before  was  dark,  or  even  a5sr«Y?," ' 
becomes  "  luminous  and  dignified."  We  are  far  from  be- 
lie\dng  that  there  is  a  conscious  insincerity  in  such  cases. 
Infant  baptism  has  been  associated  with  many  pious  senti- 
ments and  afiections  in  their  imaginations,  and  where  they 
can  not  find  scriptural  evidence  for  it,  they  still  consider  it 
an  edifying  and  a  touching  rite.  And  many  things  will 
seem  positive  e\ddence  of  a  controverted  ceremony  con- 
stantly practiced  in  such  circumstances. 

The  main  argument  which  appears  to  have  satisfied  Dr. 
BushneU's  own  mind,  and  that  of  the  Committee  of  the 
Massachusetts  Sabbath  School  Society,  when  suggested,  was, 
as  we  saw  before,  "  a  law  of  organic  connection  as  regards 
character,  subsisting  between  the  parent  and  child  ;  such  a 
connection  as  mdi;ces  the  conviction  that  the  character  of 
one  is  actually  included  in  that  of  the  other,  as  a  seed  is 
formed  in  the  capsule.'^ 

Now,  after  making  aU  allowance  for  his  explanations  about 
a  "  metaphysically  organic  connection,"  and  acknowledging, 
as  we  do,  great  truth,  value,  and  beauty  m  very  many  of 
his  ideas  on  this  subject,  yet  who  can  read  .such  language 
without  feeling  that  his  words  are  not  sufficiently  guarded ; 
that  there  are  "  dangerous  tendencies"  here  ;  and  this  arises 
directly  fi-om  his  rejecting  the  Bajitist  theory,  which  allows 
full  scope  for  all  that  is  true  in  what  he  advances.  It  is 
just  from  trying  to  advance  something  "  more  positive"  in 
favor  of  the  Pedobaptist  philosophy  than  truth  Avill  warrant, 
'  Page  82.  »  Page  18. 


DANGEROUS     TENDENCIES  263 

that  he  gets  into  difficulty.  We  can  not  see  that  "  it  is 
easy  to  believe,  and  natui'al  to  expect,  that  the  faith  of  the 
one  wiU  be  propagated  in  the  other,"  Faith  is  the  gift  of 
God,  It  can  not  be  produced  by  any  organic  connection, 
physical  or  metaphysical.  Those  things  which  tend  to  pro- 
duce or  prepare  the  mind,  in  a  certain  sense,  for  a  work  of 
grace,  may,  and  do  result  from  the  connection  between 
pious  parents  and  their  children,  A  parent  puts  a  Bible 
into  the  hand  of  his  child :  unquestionably  that  book  has  in 
it  a  tendency  to  prepare  the  mind  for  a  work  of  grace — a 
tendency,  if  you  please,  to  i:)roduce  holiness,  A  parent 
takes  liis  child  to  hear  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel :  this  has 
the  same  mfluence  ;  yet  who  would  thmk  it  judicious  to 
say  that  it  is  easy  to  believe,  and  natural  to  expect,  that 
either  the  Bible  or  preaching  will  "  propagate  faith"  in  the 
heart  of  the  hearer  or  reader. 

But  whatever  modifying  effect  the  parental  connection 
may  exert  upon  different  dispositions  in  the  cliUd,  it  is  cer- 
tainly not  correct  to  say  that  the  character  of  the  one  is 
actually  included  in  the  character  of  the  other.  It  would 
be  unjust  to  treat  the  child  of  an  habitual  drunkard  as 
"  presumptively"  intoxicated.'  Character  is  the  sum  of 
the  dispositions,  as  molded  and  modified  not  only  by  her- 
editary tendencies  and  parental  influence,  but  by  the  air 
breathed,  the  climate  inhabited,  the  companions  of  child- 
hood, by  each  look,  thought,  word  of  every  stranger,  each 
accident  and  action  of  life,  good  and  bad.  Latent  tenden- 
cies of  former  generations,  fire-side  stories,  infant  tales,  the 

'  In  other  matters,  men  of  common  sense  wait  the  development  of  facts, 
nor  act  until  they  appear ;  and  are  we  forever  in  the  Church  to  put  fic- 
tions and  presumptions  in  their  place  3  This  is  the  real  issue  between 
Baptists  and  Pedobaptists. 


264  DR.    bushnell's 

Bchool  attended,  all  modify  the  character.  Who,  then,  can 
entertam  the  con^dctiou  that  the  character  of  the  child  is 
"  actually  included"  in  that  of  the  parent  ? 

ISTow,  Dr.  Biishnell  is  not  merely  incautious  and  incorrect 
here  in  his  language,  but  the  ideas  which  he  means  to  con- 
vey by  it,  are,  as  Dr.  Tyler  charges,  positively  full  of  "  dan- 
gerous tendencies."  And  all  these  incorrect  words  and 
dangerous  ideas  arise  from  the  logical  necessity  he  felt  in 
his  own  mind  of  getting  hold  of  "  somethmg  more  positive" 
in  favor  of  mfant  baptism  than  he  set  out  with,  or  could 
find  in  the  Gospel.  There  is  nothing  in  his  whole  scheme 
to  prevent  the  child  from  falling  into  an  error  which  has 
been  most  wide-spread  and  fatal  in  all  Pedobaptist  churches, 
i.  e.,  that  it  most  probably  inherits  a  pious  character  from 
its  jDarents,  without  any  evidence  of  the  fict.  This  is,  indeed, 
a  necessary  jDart  of  the  theory,  and  Dr.  Bushnell,  by  a 
necessity  of  his  own  mind,  brings  it  out.  But  Dr.  Tyler, 
and  all  other  Congregationalists,  very  properly  shrmk  back 
with  alarm  from  an  error  that  has  already  proved  so  de- 
structive among  themselves  to  all  spiritual  religion. 

The  Baptist,  by  not  presuming  to  decide  concernmg  the 
faith  of  the  child  either  one  way  or  other,  from  that  of  the 
parent,  but  watching  closely,  and  requirmg  in  each  case 
sensible  present  exj^eriences  indicative  of  bemg  in  a  gracious 
state,  derives  all  the  advantage  that  can  come  from  the 
Pedobaptist  views,  and  avoids  all  dangerous  tendencies, 
both  ecclesiastically,  of  introducmg  all  the  world  uito  th( 
Church ;  and  experimentally,  of  leading  those  to  believe  they 
live  who  are  dead. 

We  do  not  mean  to  say  that  Dr.  Bushnell  would  practi- 
cally take  it  for  gi'anted  that  all  baptized  children  are 
Christians.     Tliis  he  mdignantly  denies,  saying  "  a-^.k  your- 


DAXGEEOUS    TENDENCIES.  265 

selves  whether  it  [a  passage  m  his  discourse],  teaches  that 
Christian  parents  are  to  take  it  for  granted  that  their  chil- 
dren are  pious  ?"  But  notwithstanding  his  disclaimer,  Dr. 
Tyler  has  fixed  it  upon  him.  Though  Dr.  B.  may  not 
practically  wish  always  to  carry  it  to  that  length,  his  lan- 
guage does,  when  it  says,  "  the  character  of  the  one  is  actu- 
ally included  in  that  of  the  other." '  His  system,  indeed 
the  whole  Pedobaptist  theory  implies  it,  more  strongly 
than  any  words.  Of  this  he  himself  is  witness.  For 
while  he  calls  "  baptismal  regeneration"  "  a  great  error  in 
the  form  in  which  it  is  held,"  yet  in  another  form  it  seems 
to  him  a  great  truth,  that  is  to  say  he  proceeds,  "  The  re- 
generation is  not  actual  but  only  presumptive^  and  every 
thing  depends  upon  the  organic  law  of  character  pertaining 
between  the  parent  and  the  child,"  etc."  Infant  baptism  is, 
he  says,  "  a  seal  of  faith  in  the  jjarent  applied  over  to  the 
child  on  the  ground  of  a  presumption  that  his  faith  is  wrap- 
ped up  in  the  parent's  faith.  It  sees  the  child  in  the  parent, 
and  counts  him  presumptively  a  believer  and  a  Christian." 
And  yet  Dr.  Bushnell  denies  and  exclaims,  "  ask  yourselves 
whether  [this  theory]  teaches  that  Christian  parents  are  to 
take  it  for  granted  that  their  children  are  pious."  What 
else  does  the  word  "presmne"  mean  but  just  to  "take  for 
granted,"  to  take  before  jwoof  or  trial  or  without  examina- 
tion ?  Richardson  so  defines  this  word,  and  so  Webster, 
and  so  Crabbe,  in  substance  ;  only  that  the  latter  adds  a  hint, 
especially  intended,  one  would  think,  for  the  Pedobaptists, 
and  peculiarly  for  Dr.  Bushnell,  "  we  must  be  careful  not  to 
presume  upon  more  than  we  are  fully  authorized  to  take  for 
certain." 

Here  then  is  infant  baptiana  declared  publicly  to  teach 

>  Page  18.  »  Page  33. 

12 


266  DR.     BUSHNELL'S 

every  time  it  is  administered,  what  Dr.  Bushnell  himself 
afterward,  with  indignation,  repels  the  charge  of  teaching, 
and  what  Dr.  Tyler  lifts  his  hands  in  horror  at,  asking, 
"  Wliat  Christian  pastor  would  dare  take  the  responsibiUty 
of  teaching  it  to  the  baptized  children  and  youth  of  his 
congregation  ?"  But  Dr.  Bushnell  does  teach  it  publicly 
and  so  did  the  Massachusetts  Sabbath  School  Society  for  a 
time,  by  so  openly  admitting  this  to  be  the  great  lesson  of 
infant  baptism. 

Yet  once  more  the  theory  of  infant  baptism  has  led  Dr. 
Bushnell,  ecclesiastically,  and  to  a  dangerous  extent  practi- 
cally, to  appear  as  the  opponent  of  sensible  experiences  of 
grace  and  revivals.  VTe  have  no  idea  that  he  would  do 
any  such  thing  deliberately  and  completely;  indeed  he 
says — "Let  me  not  be  understood  as  rejecting  re-vdvals  of 
religion,"  and  many  of  his  views  on  this  subject  we  heart- 
ily approve.  But  unused  to  the  Baptist  theory,  which  con- 
sists in  sensible  experiences  of  being  in  a  gracious  state,  he 
confoimds  quite  too  much  all  such  things  "ndth  "  explosive 
conversions"  and  revivals  with  a  "  miraculous  epidemic,  a 
fire-ball  discharged  from  the  moon,"  etc.  Let  any  one  read 
the  sixty-ninth  page  of  his  argument  befoi-e  quoted,  and 
say  if  such  is  not  the  fact. 

It  is  very  remarkable,  but  infant  baptism  leads  him  also 
into  theories  and  Adews,  dangerous  from  tlieir  tendency  to 
produce  just  the  error  Avhich  the  Pedobaptist  scheme  is 
thought  by  its  advocates  particularly  calculated  to  guard 
against,  i.  e.,  throwing  responsibility  off  the  parent  in 
relation  to  the  religious  training  of  the  child.  Thus  he 
speaks  of  it  as  foniiing  a  relation  "  between  parents  and 
churches  on  the  one  side,  and  children  on  the  other." ' 
'  See  page  72. 


DR,  bushnell's  system.  267 

Now,  if  as  Pedobaptist  writers  say,  there  is  such  a  tendency 
in  parents  to  neglect  then*  duty,  and  throw  off  the  r  respon- 
sibility in  regard  to  their  children,  will  not  this  dividuig  of 
it  with  the  Church,  just  favor  that  tendency  and  really  pro- 
duce a  laxity  at  home — a  sense  of  only  a  divided  or  jomt 
responsibility  in  quarters  where  God  has  put  it  undividedly  ? 
There  is  m  this  day  too  much  of  that  already,  and  what 
with  Sabbath-schools,  and  catechisms,  and  among  Episcopa- 
lians sponsors,  the  whole  work  of  religious  training  is  left 
in  the  hands  of  the  Church  mstead  of  where  the  God  of 
nature  and  of  grace  has  placed  it,  in  those  of  the  parents. 

We  value  Sabbath-schools  as  above  all  praise,  but  if  any 
other  power  is  systematically  to  step  in  between  the  parent 
and  child  on  religious  subjects,  no  matter  whether  it  be  a 
Sabbath-school  teacher,  a  sponsor,  or  an  orthodox  minister, 
claiming  a  kind  of  official  supervision,  and  a  divmely  uisti- 
tuted  partnership  with  the  parent  on  behalf  of  the  Church, 
dividing  with  him  the  responsibihty,  the  result  will  be  per- 
nicious to  all  parties,  No  parent  has  a  right  to  form  any  such 
partnership.     He  may  not  lay  off  his  personal  responsibihty. 

The  Baptist  theory  is  both  more  natural  and  more  scrip- 
tural. It  holds  the  parent  to  be  the  officer  appomted  of 
God,  for  the  religious  training  of  his  own  child.  It  per- 
mits -  of  no  shirking  of  the  responsibihty  by  a  division  of 
offices.  He  must  make  use  of  such  agencies  and  assistances 
as  he  can.  Sabbath-schools,  Bible-classes,  sermons,  cate- 
chisms, prayers,  but  he  is  the  responsible  supervisor  alone. 
If  he  neglects  his  duty  palpably,  by  failing  to  take  advan- 
tage of  all  reasonable  facilities,  the  Church  must  discij^line 
Mm  for  neglect  but  not  sUp  in  between  him  and  his  own 
child. 

Dr.  Bushnell  charges  the  Baptist  theory  with  "  excessive 


268  DE.  bushnell's  system. 

individualism,"  but  the  opposite  system,  it  will  be  seen, 
naturally  tends  to  downright  SociaUsm.  Take  the  plan 
of  Fourierite  communities,  and  you  might  almost  fancy 
they  had  obtained  the  germ  of  their  thought  from  the  cove- 
nant of  infant  baptism.  For  "  parents  and  churches,''''  read 
"  parents  and  communities''''  on  the  one  side,  and  "  children" 
on  the  other,  and  you  see  at  a  glance  all  the  difference. 
Both  would  rather  seem  poor  imitations  of  the  education 
of  Spartan  children. 

The  Baptist  view  is  far  more  comprehensive.  It  allows 
scope  and  makes  provision  for  parental  religious  training  of 
children  as  ample,  and  more  so  than  the  Pedobaptist  theory. 
It  is  the  only  scheme  that  throws  the  responsibility  thor- 
ouglily  and  AvlioUy  where  it  belongs — on  the  parent ;  and 
does  not  divide  it  out  uito  as  many  hundred  fragments  as 
there  are  members  of  the  Church,  or  deacons,  priests,  bish- 
ops, and  cardinals,  up  to  the  pope  himself. 

It  provides  room  for  all  that  is  true  in  Dr.  Bushnell's 
theory  of  "  organic  connection,"  physical  and  metaphysical, 
between  the  pious  parent  and  the  child.  It  provides  ample 
room  even  for  the  child  to  "  grow  up  a  Christian,"  insensible 
of  any  particular  moment  of  conversion,  yet  being  truly  re- 
genei'ate,  to  bow  his  head  Uke  young  Samuel,  and  worship 
the  God  of  his  parents,  and  partake  of  the  blessmgs  of 
Christian  ordinances.  It  proA^ides  the  only  scheme  for  this 
to  be  accomplished,  without  danger  of  flooding  the  Church 
with  unbelievers,  in  requiring  that  the  candidate  have  pres- 
ent sensible  experiences  of  grace,  a  conscious  daily  repent- 
ance for  sin  and  walk  with  God.  It  is  true  our  scheme  does 
not  teach  parents  or  children  either  to  "  take  it  for  granted" 
that  this  has  already  taken  place  without  evidence  that  "  the 
faith  of  the  parent  has  been  propagated  in  the  child"  as  a 


DE,     BUSnXELL'S     SYSTEM,  269 

matter  of  course,  through  Christian  nurture.  But  the 
Baptist  theory  holds  as  essential  the  doctrme  of  regenera- 
tion by  grace,  that  natural  goodness  is  not  sufficient,  that 
there  must  be  a  supernatural  work  of  the  Spirit  on  the 
heart,  a  death  to  sin,  and  new  life  to  righteousness,  ui  fine, 
that  we  "  must  be  born  again." 

And  it  leans  to  sensible  conversions  and  repentance  as  the 
most  usual  manner  in  which  the  ranks  of  the  array  of  Christ 
are  as  a  whole  recruited.  And  who  wUl  doubt  that  this  is 
the  case  ?  Is  not  this  the  way  in  which  the  multitudes  are, 
and  must  be  brought  in,  who  are  not  now  in  a  state  of 
grace  ?  Is  it  not  thus  that  theii*  children  will  usually  be 
brought  even  in  Dr.  Buslmell's  own  view  ?  And  practically 
is  it  not  thus  that  the  large  majority  even  of  the  children 
of  all  pious  parents  are  brought  ? 

It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  although  Christianity  is 
in  no  respect  inconsistent  with  natural  or  universal  re- 
ligion, yet  that  it  contemplates  man  fi'om  a  different  and 
nearer  stand-point.  It  views  him  as  sick,  and  comes  to  him 
as  a  remedial  rather  than  a  normal  system,  it  views  him 
as  in  bondage  to  sin,  and  sets  before  him  liberty,  as  a  sinner, 
and  brings  him  salvation.  "  I  came,"  said  Christ,  "  not  to  caU 
the  righteous,  but  srauers  to  repentance."  This  is  the  pecu- 
Harity  of  the  system.  Natural  religion  regards  man  as  a 
holy  being,  needing  only  to  see  virtue  in  order  to  choose  it. 
Christianity  presupposes  sin.  It  does  not  contradict  natural 
or  universal  religion.  So  far  as  that  goes,  and  can  go,  well. 
But  the  peculiar  genius  of  the  Gospel  is  quite  different. 
It  is  not  that  of  original  health,  but  of  health  restored  by 
its  own  medicines.  Its  province  is  that  of  the  physician, 
and  they  that  are  whole  need  not  the  physician,  but  those 
that  are  sick. 


270  CHEYALIER    BUNSEN'S 

The  head  of  a  family  mil  strive  so  to  regulate  the  food, 
clothing,  and  habits  of  his  children,  that  they  shall  maintain 
uniform  health  the  year  round.  But  yet  he  knows  that 
owing  to  a  thousand  occurrences,  they  will  need  mediciaes, 
and  the  i^hysician,  and  that  it  Avould  be  absurd  in  his  scheme 
of  life  to  overlook  or  exclude  remedies.  To  treat  his  chil- 
dren as  always  in  health,  might  often  cost  him  their  lives. 

So  the  wise  and  pious  parent  will  strive  to  train  his 
children  so  that  they  may  "  grow  up"  in  the  nurture  and  ad- 
monition of  the  Lord,  and  as  holy  as  possible.  But  he  Avill 
not  expect  practically  this  result,  without  exposure  and  sub- 
jection to  sin,  and  therefore  the  need  of  coming  to  Christ. 
Generally  there  will  be  in  the  religious  history  of  each,  sea- 
sons of  marked  spiritual  crisis,  and  even  where  they  seem  to 
grow  up  holy  youths  without  sensible  transitions  from  the 
sorrow  of  penitence  to  the  joy  of  pardon,  it  is  only  because 
these  tilings  began  so  early,  and  take  place  so  constantly, 
that  there  never  was  a  day  when  they  were  not  sensible  of 
them.     This  it  is  for  them  to  "  grow  up  Christians." 

Such  a  view  of  the  work  of  grace  on  the  souls  of  chil- 
dren, is  surely  not  contradictory,  but  entirely  coincident  ^dth 
spiritual  regeneration,  and  sensible  experiences  of  grace  as 
universally  necessary  to  Church  membership.  But  any 
other  view,  however  ably  advocated,  and  cautiously  guard- 
ed, must  be  full,  not  only  of  "  dangerous  tendencies"  always, 
but  destructive  results  too  often. 


§  III.    Chevalier  Bunsen's  View  of  Baptism. 

Dr.  Bunsen  defends  infuit  baptism  on  much  the  same 
general  principle  as  Coleridge  and  Xeander.  Yet  he 
goes  further  than  any  of  them  in  exhibiting  its  non-apos- 


VIEAV     OF     BAPTISM.  271 

tolio  origin,  while  yet  at  the  same  time  defending  it  on  tho 
groimd  of  those  Church-State  views  to  whicli  he,  Dr.  Ar- 
nold, and  others,  are  so  wedded :  views  which  seem  through 
infant  baptism  almost  inherent  m  European  reUgion,  press- 
ing it  down  as  an  hicubus.  He  admits  explicitly  that  Pedo- 
baptism  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word  *  *  *  -was 
titterly  unknown  to  the  early  Church,  not  only  down  to  the 
end  of  the  second,  but  mdeed  to  the  middle  of  the  third 
century.^ 

Yet  he  adds,'  "  Upon  closer  and  deeper  reflection  it  will 
aj)pear  Anse  to  retain  Pedobaptism,  hut  to  remodel  the  ichole 
haptismal  discipline.  *  *  *  To  this  end,  in  the  first 
place  the  doctrine  of  Siblical  baptism  m,ust  he  reformed  in 
the  sense  of  the  German  Church,  and  of  the  doctrinal 
works  of  Schleiermacher,  Neander,  Nitzsch,  and  the  Ger- 
man school  in  general.  According  to  this  view,  our  act  of 
baptism  forms  a  Avhole,  the  commencement  of  which  is  the 
sprinkling  of  the  child,  the  conclusion  the  pledge  of  the 
grown  up  and  instructed  young  Christian  sealed  by  a  bless- 
ing." ^  Afterward  the  author  admits  that  which  he  proposes 
can  only  be  done  "by  positively  and  practically  realizing 
the  idea  that  the  baptism  of  new-born  children  is  the  out- 
ward sign  of  the  vow  of  the  parents  to  dedicate  their  child 
to  God  as  his  gift  intrusted  to  them,  and  to  j)repare  it  by 
a  Christian  education  for  becoming  a  member  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  until  it  be  itself  able  to  profess  the  faith  in 
Christ,  and  to  make  the  vow  of  a  godly  life  dedicated  to 
God  and  the  brethren." 

Here,  then,  it  is  proposed  in  the  first  place  to  "  reform  the 
biblical  idea  of  baptism,"  coolly  to  remodel  the  whole  thing 

*  Hippolytas  and  his  Times.  voL  iii.  p.  179. 

2  Page  211.  'Vol.  iii.  p.  211. 


272  CHEVALIER    BTTI^rSEK'S 

on  the  basis  of  historical  philosophy,  making  it  the  vow  of 
the  parent,  not  the  cliilcl.  All  this  is  done  without  any 
more  regard  for  its  being  the  institution  of  Christ  and  his 
Apostles  than  if  it  Avas  merely  some  venerable  custom  of 
the  middle  ages,  to  be  altered,  remolded,  or  taken  away, 
according  to  the  whims  and  taste  of  these  modern  German 
architects  in  the  work  of  reconstructing  the  spiritual  tem- 
ple. It  is  this  ill-disguised  disregard,  not  to  say  contempt, 
for  the  institutions  of  Jesus  Christ  and  his  Apostles  which 
here  again,  as  in  the  remarks  of  Coleridge,  is  the  first  thing 
which  strikes  us  in  a  passage  such  as  the  above.  Much  as 
we  must  and  may  honor  the  excellent  tone  and  truly  Chris- 
tian spirit  of  this  man,  and  of  his  writings  generally,  it  is 
painful  to  see  him,  merely  because  he  has  been  brought 
up  in  the  midst  of  Pedobaptism,  defend  it  on  principles  ut- 
terly subversive  of  the  divine  authority  of  every  mstitution 
of  positive  Christianity.  Here,  in  direct  disregard  of  what 
he  had  professed  at  the  commencement  of  his  work,  i.  g.,  to 
adhere  strictly  to  the  Xew  Testament  as  a  basis,  he  de- 
hberately  proposes  to  "  reform  the  Bible." 

We  have  then  the  distinct  acknowledgment  that  the  idea 
which  we  are  to  realize  in  infant  baptism  is  "  the  vow  of  the 
parents  to  dedicate  their  child  to  God,"  and  not  the  vow  of 
the  baptized.  Yet  he  has  before  admitted  that  "  the  true 
purport  of  the  baptism  ordained  by  Christ"  is  "  that  no  man 
can  be  a  member  of  the  communion  of  saints  but  by  his  oxen 
solemn  vow."^  And  he  has  declared"  that,  "When  the 
Church  attached  rites  and  promises  of  blessing  to  any  thing 
•except  to  the  conscious  abandonment  of  sin,  and  to  the  vol- 
untary vow  of  dedicating  life  and  soul  to  the  Lord,  the 
longing  for  real  truthful  reformation  died  away  in  the  same 
'  Vol.  iii,  p.'na  a  Page  198. 


VIEW     OV    BAPTISM.  273 

proportion  among  her  members."  Thus  mfant  spruikling, 
by  his  o^^^l  confession,  if  baptism  in  any  sense  of  the  word, 
would  be  "  another  bcqjtisni'''  from  that  instituted  by  Christ. 
So  that  we  have,  at  best,  one  Lord,  one  faith,  and  two  bap- 
tims. 

Nor  is  this  less  the  case  because,  at  the  close  of  a  number 
of  years,  he  proposes  to  add  on  another  ceremony.  Confirm- 
ation, which  he  forms  into  the  completion  of  the  baptism 
by  the  personal  ratification  and  vow  of  the  subject.  The 
best  that  could  be  said,  would  be  that  there  were  two  bap- 
tisms, joined  m  many  cases  no  doubt,  by  a  connecting  link 
of  pious  ulstruction.  But  in  the  vast  majority  of  instances, 
there  is  practically  no  such  connection,  and  where  there  is, 
the  danger  then  ensues  that  this  very  link  should  cause  what 
he  calls  the  first  jmrt  of  baptism,  to  draw  after  it  the  rest 
of  the  chain  of  profession  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  with- 
out any  personal  abandonment  of  sin  or  spuitual  regeneration 
of  the  soul.  In  England,  for  instance,  what  do  we  see  but 
infant  baptism  followed,  as  a  matter  of  course,  by  confirma- 
tion and  communion,  whether  there  be  any  conscious  aban- 
donment of  sin  or  not.    So  it  ever  must  be,  and  so  it  ever  will. 

Even  if  there  be  little  or  no  deep  religious  instruction, 
custom  is  quite  suflicient,  and  it  Avelds  the  two  rites  together 
and  draws  the  young  people  by  links  of  ceremony  from  the 
one  form  to  the  other,  from  infant  spruikling  to  confirma- 
tion, and  from  confirmation  to  the  communion-table  without 
any  vital  Christianity.  Those  who  participate  in  them  thu 
become  "  confirmed,"  not  in  holiness,  but  in  iniquity,  "  con 
firmed"  in  the  notion  that  an  impenitent  life  is  not  incon- 
sistent with  the  profession  of  Christianity. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  idea  more  or  less  prevails 
vhere  infant  sprinkling  is  practiced  in  connection  with  evan- 
12* 


274  CHEVALIER    BUNSEN'S 

gelical  piety,  that  however  Arorthless  or  invalid  the  "baptism 
may  be.  iti  itself  as  the  appointed  Christian  profession,  yet 
that  being  afterward  ratified  by  the  sincere  faith  of  the 
party,  and  his  taking  upon  himself  the  vows  which  ought  to 
be  made  personally  in  that  ordinance,  it  thereby  becomes  a 
vaUd  sacrament.  But  what  would  be  the  advantage  of  it 
in  case  it  were  ?  According  to  this  supposition  it  is  in  fact 
no  real  baptism  till  ratified  by  the  personal  adoption  of  the 
candidate ;  why  not  then,  like  the  Baptist,  defer  the  rite 
altogether  until  the  party  is  able  and  willing  to  take  these 
vows  upon  himself  No  power  of  man,  however,  could  make 
a  bond,  drawn  up,  signed,  sealed,  and  ratified  m  a  manner 
at  aU  analogous  to  infant  baj^tism,  and  its  attempted  confii-ma- 
tion,  worth,  as  such,  the  j^archment  on  Avhich  it  was  draTVTi,  on 
the  simple  principle  that  "  you  can  not  confirm  a  nulHty." 

And  yet  this  is  perhaps  the  most  specious  argument  used 
as  a  plea  against  the  duty  of  believers  to  be  baptized  in  the 
present  day.  "  I  was  sprinkled  in  infancy,"  a  person  wiU 
say,  "  and  on  becoming  a  Christian  (or  perhaps  before)  I 
took  the  A^ows  of  baptism  upon  myself;  the  rite  has  thus 
been  made  valid  by  my  own  ratification,  however  void  and 
unauthorized  a  ceremony  infant  baptism  may  in  itself  be." 

It  is  unquestionably  true  that  after  a  person  has  once  taken 
on  himself  the  vows  made  by  his  sponsors  at  his  baptism, 
he  is  bound,  not  only  by  the  general  law  of  his  duty  to 
God,  but  still  more  specifically  by  his  assumption  of  the 
baptismal  promises.  Yet  it  does  not  follow  that  hLs  baptism 
is  valid.  It  is  the  promise  he  has  made,  and  not  the  act  of 
baptism  that  binds  him.  He  may  by  this,  place  himself  un- 
der the  obligations  to  lead  the  life  of  the  baptized,  but  can 
not  clahn  its  privileges,  without  comjjlpng  personally  with 
its  requirements.     The   following  legal   decision  of  Lord 


VIEW  OF  baptism:.  275 

Ellenhorough,  one  of  the  highest  English  authorities,  and 
adopted  in  this  country  so  far  as  to  settle  the  principle  of 
American  Common  Law,  in  such  instances,  may  illustrate  the 
universal  instincts  as  to  what  is  just  and  fitting  in  such  cases. 
A  minor  gave  a  penal  bond  for  £100.  On  coming  of  age 
he  ratified  and  confirmed  the  bond,  but  subsequently  re- 
fused to  pay,  and  pleaded  that  "  the  bond  being  void  ah 
orlgme,  can  not  be  ratified  and  confirmed  in  any  way,  be- 
cause confirmation  implies  the  existence  of  the  thing  to  be 
confirmed,"  that  therefore  "  neither  a  new  promise  or  new 
deUvery  would  make  the  bond  good  which  was  originally 
void."  And  it  was  urged  on  the  other  side,  that  if  the  in- 
strument was  set  aside  it  would  follow,  "  that  in  no  possible 
way  could  an  infiint  after  full  age  aflirm  such  an  obligation." 
The  bond  was  jjronounced  invalid  on  the  ground  that  it  re- 
quired "  the  act  after  full  age  to  be  of  as  great  solemnity  as 
the  original  instrument."  ^  Hence  it  is  a  principle  of  Ameri- 
can Common  Law,  in  such  cases,  that  a  penal  bond  "  being 
void,"  even  if  affirmed,  the  action  to  recover  "  must  always 
be  founded  on  the  new  promise  and  not  on  the  bond."  If, 
then,  such  an  instrument  would  not  bind  a  man,  how  much 
•  less  shall  he  have  the  right  to  claim  the  benefits  of  it  to  him- 
self, as  a  most  solemn  covenant. 

To  make  the  illustration,  however,  completely  parallel,  it 
ought  to  be  supposed  that,  instead  of  the  minor  having 
signed  the  bond  himself,  his  guardian  during  his  infancy 
should  have  afl^xed  his  ward's  name,  ^dthout  his  knowledge 
or  consent :  Avhat  subsequent  aflirmation  or  delivery  could 
render  such  bond  a  legal  instrument,  or  its  seal  bmding  ? 
Any  precedence  which  such  a  paper  might  seem  to  possess 
would  have  to  be  waived ;  and  if  the  other  party  were  en- 
*  See  Maule  and  Selwyn's  Rep.  477. 


276  CHEVALIER    BUNSEN'S 

titled  to  this  precedence  it  would  be  the  duty  of  the  minor, 
on  coming  of  age,  to  give  a  new  bond  altogether,  which 
would  have  a  force  that  the  old  one,  however  ratified,  would 
not  be  made  to  possess. 

To  apply  now  this  illustration  :  BajitLsm  is,  so  to  speak, 
the  sealed  instrument,  acknowledging  our  obUgations  to 
lead  a  Christian  life,  and  through  which  we  pubhcly  claim 
the  blessings  of  being  Chi'ist's  acknowledged  discijiles.  It 
is  a  solemn  covenant  transaction,  placing  the  seal  of  Christ's 
disciples  pubhcly  upon  us.  Sponsors  and  parents  may  vow 
and  covenant  m  the  name  of  an  mfant,  but  it  is  A^dthout  any 
authority  from  Him.  And  beyond  all  of  this  we  have  the 
confession  of  Dr.  Bunsen  that  "  the  baptism  of  new-born 
children  is  the  outward  sign  of  the  vow  of  the  parents  to 
dedicate  their  chUd."  Arrived  at  years  of  discretion,  and 
become  a  Christian,  that  cliild  desires  to  take  the  vows  of 
God  upon  hunself  How  shall  he  do  it  ?  How  would  he 
be  done  by  in  a  similar  transaction  of  daily  hfe. 

If  any  of  us  had  an  important  covenant  depending  on 
such  an  instrument,  and  the  other  party,  on  commg  of  age, 
should  wish  to  receive  some  great  benefit  from  it,  were  he 
to  promise  always  to  respect  it  as  vaUd,  and  solemnly  to 
ratify  what  he  knew  to  be  a  nullity,  but  refuse  to  sign  a 
new  bond,  might  it  not  be  a  proper  reply  that  at  least  be- 
fore he  claimed  any  thing  fi-om  such  an  instrument,  he  should 
make  it  what  it  purported  to  be  ?  And  if  it  were  his  duty 
from  any  cause  to  give  a  legal  bond,  an  acknowledgment 
or  ratification  of  his  father's  unauthorized  promise  to  induce 
him  to  do  it  would  be  no  fulfillment  of  that  duty. 

Doubtless  every  such  Christian  is  bound  to  lead  a  holy 
life.  But  it  is  his  promise  that  binds  him,  and  not  a  valid 
baptism.     And  such  a  man  has  no  right  to  claim  any  privi- 


VIEW     OF    BAPTISM.  277 

leges  on  the  ground  of  such  a  baptism,  the  obligation  to 
submit  to  which  remains  upon  him.  Why  is  it  that  in  the 
most  solemn  duties  of  rehgion  men  are  wiUuig  to  put 
up  with  what  Bunsen  rightly  names  "  patchwork  and  ruins, 
shams  and  phantoms,"  fictions  they  would  esteem  utterly 
worthless  and  nuU  in  the  business  of  daily  life  ?  By  no 
subsequent  process  can  a  bajitism,  originally  void,  be  ren- 
dered valid.  The  ordinance  being  "  the  sign  and  seal," 
which  makes  it,  so  to  sjjeak,  a  covenant  rather  than  a  mere 
verbal  promise,  is,  o^nng  to  the  utter  incompetence  of  the 
parties  at  the  time  (or  because  the  real  parties  do  not  cov- 
enant at  all),  worthless  and  mcapable  of  being  rendered 
good,  not  having  been  a  jirofession  of  his  personal  faith. 
Upon  these  grounds  not  only  Baptists,  but  all  those  in  other 
communions  who  occupy  the  position  of  Dr,  Bunsen,  are 
bound  to  treat  it  as  utterly  invalid,  however  afterward  af- 
firmed by  the  jjersonal  assumption  of  its  vows. 

"We  have  so  far  supposed  the  proper /orm,  at  least,  to 
have  been  adhered  to  in  the  body  of  the  instrument.  But 
in  the  case  of  infant  baptism,  as  it  is  called  (and  as  we  have 
called  it  fi-om  courtesy,  but  nothing  else),  all  this  is  reversed, 
except  in  the  Greek  Church.  All  others  have  taken  away 
the  very  thing  that  alone  is  the  baptism — immersion.  They 
have  passed  the  act,  to  borrow  a  legislative  figure,  without 
the  enacting  clause,  signed  the  bond,  but  torn  off  the  seal, 
and  inserted  magical  incantations  instead  of  the  names  of 
witnesses.  Let  any  one  read  over  the  baptismal  service  of 
the  Episcopal  Church  for  infants,  how,  substituting  spiink- 
ling  for  immersion,  it  demands  of  an  infant,  but  is  answered 
by  a  sponsor,  and  declaiing  it  regenerated  thereby,  contra- 
dicts and  confuses  the  most  solemn  truths,  omitting  every 
thing  that  baptism  is,  and  making  it  appear  every  thing 


278  CHEVALIER    BTTNSEN'S 

that  it  is  not,  even  in  Dr.  Bunsen's  view ;  and  then  say  if 
such  a  ceremony  is,  or  can  be  made  a  valid  Christian  Bap- 
tism. What  lawyer  would  thus  judge  of  a  s«>aled  instriunent 
in  any  transaction  of  life  beside. 

But  this,  it  may  be  said,  only  shows  the  worthlessness, 
not  the  mjurious  consequences  of  infant  sprinkling.  Let  us 
proceed,  then,  to  such  a  passage  as  the  following  from  the 
pen  of  Dr.  Bunsen :  "  In  the  second  place,  the  superstition 
that  such  children  of  Christian  parents  as  die  of  tender  age 
unbaptized  are  under  damnation,  from  which  they  must  be 
rescued  by  baptism,  is  to  be  put  dowai  forcA^er." 

This  is  just,  and  bold,  and  admirable,  so  far  as  it  goes  ; 
but  must  it  not  suggest  to  every  man  this  question :  Why 
first  teach  through  infant  baptism  this  fearful  dogma,  or 
imply  it,  as  Coleridge  admits  that  the  ceremony  does,  and 
as  infant  baptism,  viewed  in  the  Ught  of  Church  history, 
clearly  and  ever  has  done,  only  at  last  to  contrarlict  the 
whole  ?  Why  not  rather  defer  baptism  until  the  party  is 
old  enough  to  choose  for  himself?  dedicate  infants  to  God 
by  prayer,  and  any  other  rites  that  may  seem  appropriate  as  a 
voluntary  religious  act,  but  not  pretend  to  confer  baptism 
until  there  be  in  it  "  the  answer  of  a  good  conscience  toward 
God,"  *  as  well  as  the  washing  of  the  body  in  water  by  im- 
mersion. 

There  are  passages  in  the  introduction  to  the  third  volume 
of  Chevalier  Bunsen's  work  in  regard  to  the  need  of  a 
second  grand  reconstructive  Reformation,  which  would 
favor  well  the  view  that,  in  the  judgment  of  our  author, 
changes  quite  as  sweeping  in  public  sentiment  as  the  restor- 
ation of  believers'  baptism,  in  place  of  that  of  infants,  are 
expected,  and  sought  by  the  author  as  necessary  steps  to 
'  1  Peter,  iii.  21. 


VIEWS    OF    BAPTISM.  279 

the  restoration  of  pure  Christianity.  He  tells  ns,  for  in- 
stance, that  "  a  seA^ere  trial  awaits  any  one  who  looks  prim- 
itive Christianity  in  the  face."  "  Yon  take  your  stand,"  he 
proceeds,  "  upon  the  Church  ;  here  is  its  commencement. 
You  take  your  stand  upon  the  Bible,  here  is  its  first  apos- 
tolical realization.  What  is  required  of  you  is  not  to  sub- 
stitute scholarship  and  research  for  simple  Christian  faith, 
much  less  to  set  up  the  idol  of  philosophy  ha  the  shrine  of 
religion.  *  *  *  You  live  in  the  nineteenth  centiiry,  one 
of  historical  jihilosophy  and  of  reconstruction.  The  work 
to  which  we  are  called  is  unweariedly  and  humbly  to  sweep 
the  porch  of  the  temple,  to  clear  the  floor.  Not  to  riot  as 
destructives  in  the  darkened  chambers,  but  to  bestir  our- 
selves to  restore  and  to  allow  the  light  of  heaven  to  penetrate 
within  them.  It  is  the  rubbish  of  false  learning  and  con- 
ventional scholasticism  which  separates  us  from  the  sanc- 
tuary ;  and  it  is  high  time  to  sweep  it  away,  as  the  signs  of 
the  latter  days  have  appeared,  in  which  infidel  superstition 
intends  to  sweep  the  altar,  and  willful  falsehood  the  throne 
of  truth. 

"  What  is  to  be  done  ?  The  question  at  this  moment,  is 
not  how  to  carry  out,  but  how  to  prepare  a  second  grand 
reconstructive  Reformation.  The  porch  of  the  Temple 
must  first  be  more  thoroughly  cleansed  than  it  was  in  the 
sixteenth,  and  above  all  restored  more  honestly  than  it  was 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  lastly  the  work  must  be 
handled  more  practically  than  it  has  been  done  by  the  crit- 
ical German  school  of  this  age." 

Now  surely  Dr.  Bunsen  has  conceded  every  thing.  He 
allows  infant  baptism  to  be  utterly  unscriptural.  He  con- 
cedes the  miserable  state  of  religion  of  Europe,  through 
the  corruptions  of  Christianity ;   declares  that  the  preju- 


280  CHEVALIER     BUNSEN'S 

dices  of  men  have  got  to  receive  "  a  severe  trial"  in  order 
to  the  restoration  of  primitive  Christianity ;  that  this  res- 
toration can  only  be  effected  through  a  second  grand  recon- 
structive reformation,  in  which  the  porch  of  the  Temple 
shall  be  cleansed,  and  more  practically  restored  than  has  yet 
been  done  by  the  learned  men  of  modern  Germany — 
more  honestly  and  thoroughly  than  by  an}'  of  the  Reformed 
Churches, 

It  is  strange  sometimes  to  see  how  the  wisest  overlook 
the  things  which  are  transpiring  under  their  eyes — how 
Christians  receive  the  very  blessings  for  which  they  have 
been  praying,  and  recognize  them  not  as  they  come.  Had 
ChevaUer  Bunsen  only  looked  at  home,  he  might  have  seen 
some  two  hundred  Baptist  congregations  sprmging  up  in 
Germany  all  within  the  last  twenty  years,  and  exactly  meet' 
ing  the  requisitions  above  given. 

Of  the  progress  value  of  the  Baptist  theory  in  Amer- 
ica, he  seems  better  able  to  form  a  just  idea,  than  of  the 
same  principles  in  his  0"hti  country, 

"  How  little  the  National  Churches  of  the  seventeenth 
century  can  make  head  against  the  onsets  of  the  Bap- 
tists, in  countries  where  a  great  and  free  rehgious  move- 
ment exists,  is  evinced  by  the  fact  that  among  serious  Chris- 
tians of  the  Enghsh  race,  in  the  United  States,  the  Baptist 
or  Congregational  preachers  are  on  the  increase  more  than 
any  other  sect,  so  that  they  form  already  the  most  numer- 
ous and  most  progressive  commixnity."  * 

This  change  is  affecting,  and  has  already  to  a  great  ex- 
tent altered  the  whole  texture  of  American  Christianity 
fi'om  that  of  Europe,  having  abolished  infant  baptism  to  a 
large  extent  where  it  occurs  on  that  continent,  and  insisting 
•  Vol.  iii.  p  209. 


VIEWS     OF    BAPTISM.  281 

on  personal  piety  as  essential  to  Church  membership.  Upon 
its  spread,  tliroughout  the  world,  depends  the  future  spirit- 
ual prosperity  of  Europe,  and  of  mankind,  to  a  degree 
not  easily  conceived.  A  few  years  ago,  and  shortly  before 
the  death  of  Neander,  some  Baptist  ministers  calling  on  him 
with  letters  of  introduction,  he  conversed  very  fi-eely  and 
candidly  on  the  baptismal  question  with  them,  after  a  short 
pause,  remarking — "  Ah,  there  is  a  future  for  you  Bap- 
tistsP 

In  the  mean  time  who  can  forbear  to  join  with  Chevalier 
Bunsen  in  uttering  such  language  as  the  following : 

"  Let  every  one  cleanse  his  own  heart  and  house  as  well 
as  he  can.  When  the  feeling  of  the  misery  which  is  com- 
ing, and  a  real  faith  in  the  saving  truth  which  is  in  Christ 
shall  have  thoroughly  penetrated  the  nations ;  then  wall  the 
Spirit  of  God  assuredly  come  upon  them  with  might,  either 
for  the  reformation,  or  the  annihilation  of  the  existing 
churches.  Whether  this  crisis  will  end  in  the  renewal,  or 
the  destruction  of  the  present  nations  and  states,  will  de- 
pend upon  the  position  they  take  in  face  of  the  demands  of 
the  Gospel,  and  the  wants  of  the  times.  For  every  nation 
and  age  has  its  time  and  its  day  of  visitation,  after  which 
its  fate  is  sealed. 

"  This  great  movement,  however,  will  assuredly  not  lead 
to  the  destruction  of  Christianity  but  to  its  establishment 
on  a  firmer  basis ;  not  to  the  lowering  of  the  person  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  but  to  his  greater  glorification  ;  and 
God's  Kingdom  of  Truth  and  Liberty  on  earth,  mil  advance 
as  triumphantly  over  the  perishing  as  over  the  renovated 
kingdoms  and  states  of  the  present  world." 


282  XOETH    BEITlSn    REVIEW 


§  IV.    The  North  British  Revie-w  on  Infant  Baptism. 

"  Let  us  not  be  misunderstood  ;  we  have  not  wished  to 
breathe  the  shghtest  insinuation  against  the  legitimacy  and 
the  importance  of  infant  baptism.  We  have  expressed  our 
persuasion  that  it  is  a  rite  unknoA\^l  to  Scripture  and  that 
it  was  probably  unpracticed  in  the  apostolic  age ;  but  we 
also  firmly  believe  that  it  is  an  institution  eminently  con- 
formable to  the  genuine  spirit  of  Christianity,  as  such  war- 
ranted by  Scripture,  and  m  the  highest  degree  valuable  to 
the  Christian  Church."  * 

Thus  writes  the  North  British  Review. 

It  is  with  difficulty  after  makhig  every  allowance  for  the 
effect  of  custom  and  prejudice,  that  we  can  imderstand  how 
a  Protestant  Christian,  how  a  Presbyterian  especially,  could 
pen  such  lines.  In  one  paragraph  the  writer  hails  it  as  the 
dawning  of  a  bright  day  that  "  Dr.  M'lSTeil,  Mr.  Litton,  and 
the  Arclibishop  of  Canterbury,  are  perceiving  that  the  prac- 
tice of  infant  baptism  is  not  found  in  Scripture."  In  the 
next,  he  declares  that  he  would  not  msmuate  a  word  a^inst 
its  "  legitunacy  and  importance !"  And  yet  afterward  he 
urges  that  rehgious  controversies  are  every  day  "  assuming 
more  and  more  the  sharp  and  definite  form  of  an  antago- 
nistic struggle  between  the  Christianity  of  Sciipture  and 
the  Christianity  of  Tradition."  * 

True  it  is,  and  lamentably  true,  that  in  this  "  antagonistic 
struggle,"  the  organ  of  the  Free  Chm-ch  of  Scotland  does 
not  wish  to  breathe  a  word  more  against  infant  baptism 
than  is  absolutely  forced  out  of  it  by  the  '■'■  p'essure  of  the 
language  of  Scrij)twe,"  as  it  says.     Its  position  in  regard 

'  August,  1852,  p.  211,  Amer.  Ed.  '  Page  212. 


ON     INFANT    BAPTISM.  283 

to  infant  Laptism,  is  like  that  of  Austria  at  this  moment 
b'^tween  the  pressure  of  the  Allies  on  one  side,  and  Russia 
on  the  other.  It  admits  too  much,  to  make  what  it  reserves 
decently  consistent.  It  admits  that  the  language  of  Scrip- 
ture, applied  to  infant  baptism,  would  teach  the  most  fear- 
ful and  fatal  errors ;  that  it  is  a  rite  "  utterly  unknown  to 
Scripture  ;"  and  yet  professes  to  be  not  quite  sure  as  to  its 
bemg  unpracticed  in  the  apostolic  age;  commends  it  as  "in 
the  highest  degree  valuable,"  and  finds  in  circumcision 
"  ample  authority,"  and  in  "  every  Christian  heart  an  echo" 
"  for  the  jjublic  incorporation  of  intants  into  the  Church  of 
Christ." 

Is  it  not,  then,  as  plam  as  the  day,  that  if  infant  baptisiu 
was  ever  practiced  by  the  Apostles,  if  it  was  any  thmg  but 
a  corruption,  it  must  have  been  universal  at  the  beginning  ? 
That  if  circumcision  furnishes  ample  authority  now,  it  did 
in  the  first  ages  ?  If,  ui  all  the  language  of  Scripture,  not 
one  word  of  it  will  apjjly  to  mfant  baptism,  without  leading 
to  the  most  awful  consequences,  it  never  could  have  been 
known  to  the  Apostles.  And  it  mnst  be  utterly  anti-'&Qxv^- 
tural.  In  another  number,'  this  Review,  commending 
Bunsen's  ideas  of  baptism,  in  which  he  asserts  "  confidently'''' 
that  infiint  baptism  was  unkno^^^l,  the  reviewer  "  can  not 
hold  this  to  be  loholly  determined."  To  us  there  seems 
some  little  Avant  of  candor  just  here,  after  such  a  masterly 
article  as  most  of  that  from  Avhich  we  continue  to  qiiote. 
"  In  the  absence  of  all  ex2:)ress  institution  of  uifant  baptism 
by  Christ  or  his  Apostles,  we  dare  not  call  it  a  complete 
sacrament  till  the  consciousness  of  the  baptized  person  has 
become  capable  of  fulfillmg  the  spiritual  condition  of  the 
sacramental  blessing,  and  become  susceptible  of  its  recep- 
*  May,  1853,  p.  66. 


284  NORTH     BRITISH     REVIEW 

tion."     Why  not  then  defer  it  nntil  the  spmtual  conditions 
are  fulfilled  ? 

"The  celebration  of  the  outward  rite,  at  an  age  when  in- 
telligence is  stUl  dormant,  separates,  in  respect  of  time,  the 
two  elements  which  are  necessary  to  constitute  a  sacra- 
ment ;  and  we  have  not  a  particle  of  authority  for  suppos- 
ing that  the  sacramental  virtue  can  be  realized  tUl  both 
elements  are  present.  A  spiritual  blessing,  of  necessity  im- 
jjlies  a  spiritual  recipient.  This  momentous  truth,  which 
Ues  at  the  foimdation  of  the  Christian  faith,  has  been  for- 
gotten by  those  who  hold  that  infant  baptism  is  a  complete 
sacrament.  They  have  been  betrayed  into  this  forgetful- 
ness  by  the  belief  that  infant  baptism  was  expressly  of 
apostolical  origin,  and  by  the  consequent  pressure  of  the 
language  of  Scripture.  They  found  spiritual  blessings  at- 
tached to  baptism  in  Scripture,  but  they  found  also  spiritual 
conditions  imposed  upon  the  recipient.  The  belief  that  in- 
fant baptism  was  the  institution  then  spoken  of,  involved 
them  in  a  hopeless  dilernma^  from  which  they  vainly  en- 
deavored to  extricate  themselves  by  overlooking  the  spir- 
itual state  of  the  infant,  and  at  the  same  time  supposing 
that  God,  in  some  mysterious  manner,  communicated  some 
equally  mysterious  blessing  to  his  soul.  The  very  essence 
of  sacerdotalism  was  involved  m  this  belief.  But  a  mere 
exammation  of  Scrijjture  has  made  all  clear.  The  language 
of  the  Apostolic  Church  does  not  apply  to  infant  baptism.'''* 
"  The  Church  indeed  advanced  *  *  *  to  the  baptism  of  in- 
fants, but  it  neglected,  while  modifying  the  practice,  to 
modify  the  rule  which  guided  the  interpretation  of  Scrip- 
ture respecting  it." 

Here,  then,  we  find  the  same  trouble  growing  out  of  in- 
fant baptism  in  Scotland  as  in  Germany.     It  avowedly  re- 


OPEN   COMMUNION.  285 

quires  that  "  the  doctrine  of  JBihllcal  baptism  must  he  re- 
formed^'''' as  Bunsen  contends.  True,  in  Bible-loving  Scot- 
land, this  thing  can  not  be  quite  so  openly  expressed  as  in 
Germany.  There  it  is  simply  termed  "modifying  theprac- 
^^ce"  of  the  Bible,  and  then,  to  make  matters  more  consist- 
ent, "  modifying  the  rule  Avhich  guides  the  interiJi'etation  of 
Scripture."  But  it  all  means  precisely  the  same  thing.  It 
is  an  essential  remodeling  of  Christianity,  in  one  of  its 
most  important  features,  the  terms  of  its  Church  member- 
ship, and  of  Biblical  doctrine  itself^  to  suit  such  altera- 
tions. It  talks  about  "  advancing'''  to  the  baptism  of  in- 
fants, beyond  all  the  limits  of  the  Bible,  and  until  it  in- 
volves all  who  practice  avowedly  in  endless  confusions  and 
contradictions,  so  that  they  have  to  modify  and  remold  all 
the  rules  which  guide  their  interpretation  of  the  Scriptui-es 
themselves. 

Thus,  w"h ether  we  examine  the  defenses  of  infant  baptism 
by  Coleridge  or  Bushnell,  by  Bunsen  or  by  the  "  North 
British  Re\dew,"  all  concm-  in  showhig  a  fearful  hst  of  the 
most  injurious  consequences  accompanying  in  all  ages. 


CHAPTEE    VI. 

MIXED    COMMUNION   UNWISE   AND    INJURIOUS. 

Many  excellent  Christians  say  that  they  agree  ivitli  the 
Baptists  in  every  thing  but  this,  that  they  would  like  all 
whom  they  consider  Christians  admitted  to  the  communion 
of  then*  Churches.  This,  as  we  have  seen,  is  Dr.  Bmisen's 
chief  objection  to  them  j  he  can  not  see  why  Pedobaptists 


286  ROBERT    hall's 

should  reflise  to  join  in  Church  relations  with  Baptists,  or 
the  converse.' 

K  Baptists  were  wrong  in  regard  to  this  practice,  there  is 
then  nothmg  to  prevent  members  of  Churches,  heretofore 
Pedobajjtists,  being  baptized  and  fonning  open  commun- 
ion Churches  in  which  both  of  these  parties  should  be  on 
terms  of  perfect  equality.  Yet  neither  in  this  country  nor 
in  England,  that  we  know  of,  has  a  single  Pedobaptist 
Church  thus  altered  its  character  in  the  last  two  hundred 
years.  In  many  cases  they  do  practically  admit  those  who 
will  not  have  their  children  sprinkled,  and  sometimes  even 
allow  their  members  to  be  baptized ;  but  their  creeds  re- 
quire a  behef  that  infant  baptism  is  scriptural,  and  their 
preaching  upholds  it.  Their  ministers  are  expected  to  per- 
form it,  and  the  whole  weight  and  influence  of  the  Church, 
as  an  organization,  is  exerted  in  its  favor. 

Many  instances  have  occun-ed  in  England  of  churches 
originally  Baptist,  can-ying  ojien  communion  sentiments  so 
far  as  to  elect  Congregational  jjastors,  and  even  iising  the 
font  and  the  baptistry  in  the  same  house  of  worship ;  but 
other  denominations  have  never  been  inclined  to  meet  Bap- 
tists in  this  matter,  justly  fearing,  no  doubt,  that  it  might 
brmg  all  ordinances  into  contempt.  Nor  have  Pedobaptist 
Churches  ever  been  in  the  habit  of  pubUcly  mviting,  even 
to  occasional  commmiion,  those  who  had  not  in  their  opin- 
ion been  baptized,  such  as  Quakers,  etc.  That  the  views 
of  such  men  as  Bunyan  and  Robert  Hall  arose  fi'om  a  truly 
noble  and  liberal  disposition  none  can  doubt,  and  many  Bap- 
tist Churches  have  tried  the  principles  they  proposed. 
Pedobaptists  never  have,  though  many  have  professed  to 
admire  the  arguments  of  Robert  Hall.  There  is,  then,  no 
'  See  p.  16,  and  Hippolytus,  vol.  iii.  p.  215. 


SYSTEM.  287 

justice  in  the  charge  so  often  made  against  the  Baptist  de- 
nomination for  illiberality  in  not  accomplishing  what  its 
members  alone  have  attempted  to  effect.  Where  is  the 
Church,  origmally  Pedobaptist,  that  has  felt  itself  con- 
strained to  admit  all  pious  persons,  even  if  unbaptized,  to 
the  Lord's  Supper,  to  a  full  and  perfect  membership  in  any 
numbers,  vnth  an  equal  right  to  vote,  even  to  elect  officers, 
or  to  become  officers  themseh^es,  as  weU  as  to  preach  and 
administer  ordinances  only  as  they  conscientiously  believed 
correct  ? 

If  this  were  the  diA-inely  appointed  prmciple  of  visible 
Church  membership,  Pedobaptists  ought  not,  in  any  way,  to 
require  infant  baptism  or  any  particular  form  of  government 
in  their  Churches.  The  revolution  which  would  then  take 
place  in  other  denominations  would  be  quite  as  great  as  any 
proposed  in  om-  own.  When  they  have  tried  this  experi- 
ment and  succeeded  in  it,  they  may  blame  us  perhaps  for 
bigotry.  But  until  then  the  case  stands  thus — some  Bap- 
tists have,  fi'om  the  most  liberal  views,  tried  it,  but  it  has 
not  been  found  conducive  to  prosperity,  and  many  of  them 
deny  that  it  is  correct  in  principle.  Robert  Hall  advocated 
this  plan  on  the  only  equitable  and  reasonable  basis.  He 
says  that  were  the  practice  he  proposed  universally  to  pre- 
vail, "  the  mixture  of  Baptists  and  Pedobaptists  m  Christian 
societies  would  probably,  ere  long,  be  such  that  the  appel- 
lation of  Baptist  might  be  foimd  not  so  j^roperly  applicable 
to  Churches  as  to  mdividnals." '  And  he  calls  this  his  lead- 
ing position,  "  that  no  Church  has  a  right  to  establish  terms 
of  communion  which  are  not  terms  of  salvation."^  Indeed 
he  would  make  it  a  matter  of  indifference  whether  the  min- 
isters of  the  Gospel  were  themselves  baptized  or  unbaptized, 
'  Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  228.     Harper.  2  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  359. 


2S8  HISTORY     OF    THE 

or  what  their  views  were  upon  any  subject  of  theology, 
provided,  they  were  esteemed  to  be  Christians. 

The  following  is  the  history  of  this  whole  question.  Be- 
fore the  year  1600,  several  of  the  Puritans  who  had  left 
England  and  joined  the  Bro^niists  or  Independent  Church 
in  Holland  became  Baptist,  there  being  many  of  that  per- 
suasion around  them.  For  this  "  they  were  excommuni- 
cated by  the  rest.'''' '  This  led  to  the  formation  of  an  Eng- 
lish Baptist  Church  in  Holland,  w^hich  afterward  moved 
back  and  settled  in  London,  Before  this  time  the  practice 
of  English  Baptists  seems  to  have  been  various.  There 
were  some  Churches  distinctively  Baptist,  and  there  were 
Baptists,  at  least  in  sentiment,  mixed  up  in  other  churches. 
Certain  it  is  that  in  1633,  in  an  Independent  Church,  enough 
of  its  owT^i  members,  who  did  not  believe  in  infant  baptism, 
asked  and  received  their  dismissions  to  form  a  distinct 
Church  on  Baptist  principles. 

It  is  probably  owing  to  circumstances  such  as  these  that 
some  of  the  churches  m  England  became  mixed  commu- 
nion and  some  strict.  When  Bunyan  wrote  in  defense  of 
the  former  practice  it  was  not,  however,  general  in  the  de- 
nomination, nor  did  it  become  so,  until  the  influence  of  Rob- 
ert Hall's  writings  gave  it  a  currency  in  England  it  has 
never  obtained  in  this  country.  For  a  time  the  splendor 
of  his  essays  on  this  subject  dazzled  and  delighted  all.  And 
by  degrees  the  practice  he  recommended  became  exceed- 
ingly current  m  the  Baptist  Clun-ches  of  that  country.  Tc 
such  lengths  were  matters  carried,  that  many  openly  de- 
clared themselves  not  Baptist  Churches  in  any  sense  of  the 
word,  or  attached  to  any  particular  denomination,  but  sim- 
ply Christian.  Sprinkling  and  hnniersion  were  performed  in 
'  See  Struggles  and  Triumphs,  p.  197. 


QUESTION.  289 

the  same  house  of  worship,  as  they  are  in  some  of  these 
places  to  this  day.  Pedobaptist  ministers  were  called  and 
settled  as  pastors  when  the  numbers  of  persons  of  that  per- 
suasion became  the  majority,  as  they  must  frequently  in  a 
country  where  the  proportion  of  Baptists  is  so  exceedingly 
small.  They  were  sometimes  preferred  as  able  and  willing 
to  accommodate  all  parties,  which  Baptists  could  not.  The 
result  of  this  was  found  to  be  that  while  Baptist  Churches 
lost  their  distinctive  character  and  influence,  the  Pedobap- 
tist Churches  lost  none  of  theirs.  And  thus  the  question 
naturally  evolved  itself,  whether  it  was  the  duty — whether 
it  was  right,  in  fact,  in  those  who  conscientiously  beUeved 
in  Baptist  sentiments,  to  give  up  so  powerful  a  source  of 
uifluence  in  their  favor  as  that  of  church  organization.  The 
result  seems  to  have  been  very  generally  a  practical  convic- 
tion, even  in  the  minds  of  all  English  open  communionists, 
that  the  Pedobajitists  and  Regular  Baptists  of  this  country 
were  light  so  tkr  as  this  at  least,  that  the  maintenance  of 
the  ordinance  of  Baptism  is  committed  in  charge  to  the 
visible  churches  as  such — that  it  is  one  of  the  specific  ob- 
jects for  which  they  were  instituted  and  that  they  may  not 
lay  aside  this  means  of  extending  their  influence. 

Hence  most  of  the  Enghsli  Churches  now  do  not  allow 
Pedobaptists  to  become  fully  members  of  the  Church  in 
the  sense  of  voting  or  having  any  share  in  the  government, 
but  simply  to  commune.  Thus  the  Church  is  Baptist 
though  the  communicants  may  be  half  Pedobaptist.  This 
is  a  quiet  but  complete  abandonment  of  Robert  Hall's 
theory,  and  of  the  principle  of  mixed  communion,  while  re- 
taining its  practice.  For  it  is  quite  clear  that  the  maintenance 
of  the  two  ordinances  devolves  on  the  same  body  of  men. 
If  baptism  is  committed  to  \dsible  Churches  as  such,  so  is 

13 


290  BAPTISTS     IN    AMERICA. 

also  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  they  are  both  Church  ordi- 
nances. The  only  possible  question  is,  whether  occasional 
participation  ought  or  ought  not  to  be  governed  by  the 
prhaciples  which  regulate  habitual  Church  communion. 

In  this  country  there  never  has  been  the  same  hesitation 
on  these  questions,  owing  m  part  to  the  more  rapid  manner 
in  which  all  practices  are  here  pushed  back  untU  they  rest 
upon  their  ultunate  principles,  and  are  carried  out  to  their 
legitimate  consequences.  Another  cause  more  immediately 
historical  is  that  in  their  early  origin  in  this  country,  the 
Baj^tists  Avere  driven  ofi"  by  the  action  of  their  opponents, 
excluded  on  the  plea  of  anabaptism  from  their  Church  fel- 
lowship, and  thus  forced  into  the  position  of  imiting  as 
an  entirely  distinct  denommation.  The  earliest  Baptist 
Churches  were  in  this  way  foimed  by  the  action  of  Pedo- 
baptists  who  drove  them  together  by  banishing  those  who 
embraced  these  views  alike  from  their  Churches  and  from 
their  colonies,  and  punished  them  for  preaching  in  their  cities 
or  being  found  in  their  streets.  The  Churches  thus  formed 
grew,  because  they  were  fomided  on  principles  of  truth  and 
of  enormous,  though  unperceived,  importance  to  all  vital 
Christianity.  It  was  soon  fovuid  also  that  the  very  exclu- 
sion of  them  from  other  communions,  by  drivmg  them  into 
Church  relations  with  each  other,  enabled  them  more  ftdly 
to  preach,  act  out  and  practice  upon  their  prmciples.  This 
was  the  means  of  a  combined  strength  and  rapid  propaga- 
tion of  their  views  by  that  immensely  superior  force  which 
every  social  organization  has  over  an  equal  number  of  men 
unorganized — and  above  all  by  that  which  the  presence  of 
the  Saviour  confers  upon  every  two  or  three  gathered  to- 
gether in  his  name. 

In  the  course  of  time  good  men  became  united  in  Mas- 


THE    PRACTICAL    QUESTION.  291 

sachusetts,  and  by  degrees  all  over  the  country  the  preju- 
dices agahist  them  gave  way,  until  now  the  chief  complaint 
against  them  is  that  of  Bunsen,  that  they  remain  a  distinct 
denomination. 

The  question,  therefore,  has  resolved  itself  into  this  prac- 
tically, havmg  by  the  jn-ovidence  of  God,  and  the  action  of 
others,  been  formed  on  prmcij)les  of  organization,  very 
powerful  for  the  dissemination  of  what  they  are  convinced 
are  important  truths,  is  it  now  theii*  duty  to  alter  these 
principles  so  as  to  surrender  that  peculiar  power,  especially 
while  all  Pedobajitist  Churches  retain  it  on  theu*  side,  and 
apply  it  to  the  support  of  infant  bajitism  ? 

But  apart  from  the  danger  of  forsaking  g.  position  in 
which  they  are  placed  by  Providence,  and  endorsed  by  the 
course  of  all  others,  the  fact  wliich  has  ultimately  decided 
their  position  is,  that  the  ordinances  of  baptism  and  the 
Lord's  Supper  being  committed  to  the  visible  Churches  of 
Christ,  as  such,  for  mamtenance  and  extension,  it  is  their 
duty  to  throw  their  whole  proper  weight  as  a  divine  institu- 
tion, in  favor  of  the  correct  and  regular  observance  of  both 
these  sacramients.  But  this  is  impossible,  if  they  associate 
themselves  on  an  equality  in  the  visible  Churches,  with  those 
whose  belief,  practice,  and  influence  are  erroneous  on  these 
subjects,  and  paralyze  their  owti.  Hence,  m  this  comitry 
it  seems  to  be  generally  admitted  as  a  truth,  that  without 
lovmg  each  other  less,  all  Christians  can  act  more  efficient- 
ly by  resolving  themselves  into  churches,  constituted  on 
their  own  views  in  regard  to  those  Divine  ordinances  which 
it  is  part  of  the  duty  of  those  organizations  as  such,  to 
uphold. 

If  infant  baptism  is  a  divine  institution,  the  Pedobaptists 
are  right  in  preaching  about  it,  and  practicing  it  as  a  visible 


292  ALL     OTHER    CHURCHES 

Church  ordinance,  and  the  hest  way  of  testing  the  matter 
is  for  all  those  Avho  conscientiously  believe  thus,  to  cany  it 
out  in  action  to  its  legitimate  results.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  behever's  baptism  is  alone  di^-inely  appointed,  if  Baptist 
principles  have  the  distinctive  power  and  utility  which  has 
been  sho«Ti,  it  is  not  only  the  right  but  the  duty  of  all  who 
beUeve  these  truths,  to  act  up  to  them  by  uniting  in 
churches,  the  Aveight  of  whose  jjubUc  and  social  influence 
is  in  favor  of  all  those  objects  for  which  j)articular  churches 
are  organized  at  all. 

To  carry  out  any  other  principles,  every  Presbyterian  and 
Congregational,  and  Methodist  Church  must  give  up  all  the 
denominatioijal  pecuUarities  of  its  organization.  Baptists 
ought  to  be  admitted  to  a  full  and  hearty  equality  m  all 
evangelical  Churches — admitted,  not  only  as  members  but 
as  officers,  and  allowed  to  preach  their  views  and  act  out 
their  sentiments,  as  freely  and  fully  as  Pedobaptists,  or  ^nth 
such  difierences  only  as  fluctuating  majorities  might  rightly 
impose  upon  conscientious  minorities  in  the  same  Church, 
all  having  equal  privileges  of  oi^inion  and  of  voting.  In 
fine,  it  would  do  away  with  every  thing  like  a  constitution 
derived  from  the  New  Testament,  beyond  the  simple  fact 
that  each  person  must  be  a  society  of  those  supposed  to  be 
pious  persons,  however  heterogeneous  their  views.  This 
might  be  a  Church  of  Christians  then,  but  would  not  be  a 
Church  of  Christ.  The  whims,  oj^iuions,  and  heresies  of 
good  men,  however  dangerous,  would  all  be  entitled  to 
equal  support.  Augustine  beUeved  in  baptismal  regenera- 
tion, and  Fenelon  in  purgatory.  Foster  shrank  from  end- 
less punishment,  wliile  Milton  advocated  divorce  at  pleasure, 
and  Massillon  adored  the  Virgin  Mary.  Must  we  then 
either  deny  the  personal  Christianity  of  such  men  as  these, 


SIiriL.\RLY     CO^rSTITUTED.  293 

or  admit  any  numbers  of  them  if  supposed  to  be  pious,  who 
may  wish  to  join  all  our  churches  as  membei'S  or  ministers, 
to  advocate  any  of  these  \iews  ?  Are  they  to  have  liberty 
not  only  to  advocate  them,  but  to  act  them  out,  to  seek 
the  intercessions  of  samts  and  virgins,  to  baptize  children, 
or  pray  for  the  dead  ?  Must  we  have  a  quiet  corner  for 
the  confessional,  ^\'ith  an  altar  and  a  crucitix  to  conciliate 
the  conscientious  Papist  ?  Must  we  alter  the  marriage  vow, 
and  provide  for  its  amicable  termination,  to  accommodate 
the  disciples  of  Milton  ?  And  yet  it  would  all  necessarily 
follow  from  mixed  communion  principles,  as  stated  by  Rob- 
ert Hall  himself,  in  that  "  we  are  expressly  commanded  to 
tolerate  in  the  Church  those  diversities  of  opmions  which 
are  not  mconsistent  with  salvation." ' 

When  the  Churches  of  other  denominations  are  prepared 
for  this,  they  may  rightly  complain.  At  present,  the  Con- 
stitution of  all  Pedobaptist  Churches  pledges  their  mem- 
bers individually,  and  the  whole  weight  and  moral  influence 
of  the  Church  collectively,  to  the  support  of  infant  bap- 
tism. In  the  Episcopal  Church,  meager  as  its  articles  are 
in  regard  to  many  other  parts  of  ecclesiastical  polity,  they 
yet  particularly  specify  that  infant  baptism  "  is  in  any  wise 
to  be  retained  m  the  Church."     (Art.  27.) 

Our  Methodist  brethren  have  the  same  article  in  sub- 
stance (Art,  17),  and  it  is  made  "the  duty  of  every  rmnis- 
ter  of  a  circuit,  or  station,  to  obtain  the  names  of  the  chil- 
dren belonging  to  his  congregation,  *  *  *  and  diligently 
to  instruct  and  exhort  all  parents  to  dedicate  their  children 
to  the  Lord  in  baptism,  as  early  as  convenient."  In  an- 
swer to  the  question,  "  How  improper  persons  shall  be  kept 
from  joining  the  Church  ?."  the  answer  is,  "  Let  none  be 
'  Terms  of  Commumon,  part  ii.  sec.  2. 


294  OPEN    COMMUNION 

received  into  the  Church  until  they  are  recommended  by  a 
leader,  with  Avhom  they  have  met  at  least  six  months  on 
trial,  and  have  been  baptized,  and  shall,  on  examination  by 
the  leader  in  charge,  before  the  Church,  give  satisfactory 
assurances  both  of  the  correctness  of  their  faith  and  their 
wUhngness  to  observe  and  keep  the  rules  of  the  Church."  * 

Among  the  Presbyterians,  both  their  Confession  of  Faith 
and  their  Larger  and  Shorter  Catechisms  declare  that  "  the 
infonts  of  such  as  are  members  of  the  visible  Church  are  to 
he  haptizedP  In  their  form  of  government,  they  xitterly 
set  themselves  against  the  principles  on  which  alone  mixed 
communion  could  be  advocated,  and  declare  that  all  their 
baptized  members  of  the  Church  are  "  bound  to  perform, 
all  the  duties  of  Church  members."  ^ 

It  would  not  even  be  sufficient  for  Pedobaptists  simply 
to  be  willing  to  break  down  then*  church  walls  so  far  as  to 
receive  Baptists  to  a  full  and  perfect  equaUty  in  the 
Church,  in  order  to  make  the  cases  parallel,  seeing  that 
they  fully  admit  the  baptisms  of  these  latter,  who,  how- 
ever, are  unal)le  to  acknowledge  theirs. 

The  following  objections  to  mixed  communion  wiU  be 
felt  both  by  conscientious  Pedobaptists  and  Baptists. 

1.  If  Ulcere  simply  lawful,  and  not  absolutely  command- 
ed, it  loould  be  inexpedient,  as  calculated  to  make  all  ordi- 
nances obsolete,  by  bringing  them  mto  contempt.  Whether 
the  notion  be  scriptural  or  otherwise,  it  always  has  been 
supposed  that  the  ordinances  of  baptism  and  the  Lord's 
supper  belong  appropriately  to  the  visible  Churches  of  Christ, 
as  such.  The  Lord's  Supper,  for  instance,  is  celebrated  in 
the  Church  as  a  general  rule,  and  members  are  commanded 

'  Discipline,  chap.  ii.  sec.  2. 

"  Book  L  caap.  i.  ii.  and  Book  ii.  of  Discipline,  chap  L 


INEXPEDIENT.  295 

"  to  tarry  one  for  another."  Both  ordinances  are  adminis- 
tered by  the  presiding  officer  of  the  Church,  specially  to 
intimate  that  it  is  performed  as  an  official  act  of  him,  as 
their  minister.  What  then,  must  be  the  effect,  if,  in  the 
same  body,  all  kinds  of  different  views  in  regard  to  the 
ordinances  prevail  ?  Either  there  would  be  perpetual  bick- 
erings, or  else  complete  and  compelled  silence,  leading  to 
indifference.  The  latter,  as  the  only  course  of  equitable 
peace,  would  soon  prevail.  The  Baptist  conscientiously  be- 
lieves infant  sjirinkluig  to  be  invalid  to  the  individual  and 
injurious  to  the  religious  community.  The  Pedobaptist 
would  dishke  to  sanction  the  baptism  of  an  adult  who  had 
been  sprinkled  in  infancy,  esteeming  it  an  imj^roper  repeti- 
tion of  the  ordinance — «wa-baptism.  The  officers  of  a 
church,  anxious  not  to  wound  the  feeUngs  of  any  brethren, 
would  keep  these  occasions  of  difference  out  of  sight ; 
neither  infant  baptism  nor  that  of  adults  would  be  upheld 
from  the  pulpit.  The  duty  of  submission  to  the  rite  in 
awy  way  would  cease  to  be  enjoined.  It  would  be  shunned 
as  a  matter  of  conversation  generally  among  members,  or 
those  who  spoke  freely  about  it  would  be  liable  to  discip- 
line for  disturbing  the  peace  of  the  Church,  Thus  baptism, 
that  ordinance  which  is  placed  so  conspicuously  m  the  New 
Testament,  would  necessarily  be  treated  with  utter  disre- 
gard— banished  the  Churches, 

But  if  expelled  the  Church,  where  could  it  find  a  home  ? 
For  that,  as  we  have  seen,  is  its  appropriate  place.  It  has 
thus  far  ever  been  administered  as  the  official  act  of  the 
Church ;  but  its  officers  would  feel  that  they  were  never 
acting  in  the  name  of  the  whole  Church,  but  of  a  divided 
body,  let  them  administer  it  as  they  might.  They  would 
hardly  like  to  perform  it,  and  when  done,  it  would  be  al- 


296  OPEN    COMMUNION 

most  by  stealth.  But  h  the  sph-it  of  the  Church  really 
discountenanced  any  form  of  baptism  AAithin  its  Avails,  all 
baptism  would  certainly  be  despised  and  become  obsolete, 
and  this  with  very  far  more  rapidity  than  mfant  baptism 
itself,  fostered  by  Churches  and  upheld  by  muiisters,  has 
yet  done.  Thus,  from  an  ostensible  regard  for  the  Lord's 
Supper,  all  baptism  would  be  discarded. 

But  this  would  be  certain  to  react  upon  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per itself  A  body  which  avowed  itself  not  called  on  to 
defend  the  one  institution,  could  find  no  authority  to  en- 
force the  other.  If  the  Church,  as  such,  is  not  an  institu- 
tion appomted  to  uphold  baptism,  it  has  no  more  authority 
in  regard  to  the  Lord's  Supper,  The  whole  would  be  a 
private  matter,  perfectly  optional,  observed  only  by  a  few 
of  the  stricter  brethren,  and  all  ordinances,  and  of  course 
all  discipline,  disjointed  and  disunited,  would  drop  to  pieces 
as  a  rope  of  sand. 

2.  But,  beyond  all  this,  the  principle  upon  which  mixed 
communion  rests  involves  a  breach  of  trust,  because  bap- 
tism and  the  Lord's  Supper  are  committed  to  the  custody 
and  guardianship  of  the  visible  Churches  of  Christ,  as  such, 
which  are  the  trustees,  the  administrators  of  these  ordi- 
nances, by  a  divine  appointment. 

It  must  be  quite  evident  that  they  are  committed  to  the 
care  of  some  agents.  They  are  not  simply  enjoined  in  the 
Bible,  and  left  without  any  to  defend  them,  agauist  abuses 
and  attacks,  or  to  exhibit  then*  divine  authority  and  the 
duty  of  submitting  to  them,  none  being  responsible  for 
administering  them  to  proper  subjects,  and  to  those  alone. 
On  whom  does  this  responsibility  officially  devolve  ?  We 
know  that  one  important  duty  of  the  visible  Churches  of 
Christ  is  to  uphold  the  doctrmes  of  the  Gospel,  and  to 


A     BREACH     OF     TRUST.  297 

spread  them  before  the  whole  world.  It  is  thus  that  they 
exhibit  their  character  as  the  golden  candlesticks  supporting 
the  Ught  of  divine  truth  in  the  world,  ti'immed  and  filled 
with  the  oil  of  grace  by  the  hand  of  Christ  himself  But 
is  it  only  doctrmes  that  give  Ught  ?  Is  there  nothing 
lutainous  m  the  ordinances  of  the  Gospel  ?  To  whom  then 
is  the  maintenance  of  these  institutions  committed  ?  "Whose 
duty  is  it  to  uphold  and  to  admmister  them,  but  those 
Churches  of  Christ  regularly  constituted,  according  to  the 
institution  of  the  Gospel  ? 

If  we  consider  baptism,  for  mstance,  who  can  doubt  that 
the  visible  Churches  were  mtended,  among  other  objects, 
to  support  and  maintain  this  ordinance.  Such  certainly 
has  been  the  mstmctive  feeling  of  Christians  m  all  ages. 
When  first  the  commission  was  given  to  preach  and  to  bap- 
tize, there  was  but  one  visible  Church  on  earth.  And  the 
commission  seems  to  have  been  delivered  twice.  First  to 
the  eleven  privately ;  at  which  time  Christ  does  not  say 
any  thing  specifically  aboiit  the  administrator  of  baptism, 
only  its  administration.*  Secondly  on  one  of  the  mountains 
of  Galilee,  where  he  met  Avith  his  disciples,  by  a  solemn  and 
long-standing  appointment.  There  were  clearly,  on  this 
last  occasion,  many  others  present  besides  the  eleven,  some 
of  whom  up  to  that  time  doubted.  This  is  probably  the 
occasion  on  which  he  met  the  five  himdred  brethren  at 
once,  as  Robinson  has  shown."  "He  therefore"  says  this 
sound  critic,  "  here  takes  leave  on  earth  of  those  among 
whom  he  had  lived  and  labored  longest,  and  rej^eats  to  all 
his  disciples,  in  public,  the  solemn  charge  which  he  had  al- 
ready given  in  private  to  the  Apostles,  '  Go  ye,  therefore, 
and  teach  all  nations,  and  lo,  I  am  -ndth  you  always,  even 

■  Mark,  xvi.  16.  2  Notes  to  English  Harmony,  §  170. 

13* 


298  OEDINAXCKS     COMMITTED     TO 

unto  the  end  of  the  world.'  "  *  This  commission,  then,  ap- 
pears to  have  been  given  to  the  visible  Churches  as  such. 

Afterward  when  the  first  great  missionary  enterprise  was 
undertaken,  Acts,  xiii.  1,  although  St.  Paul  as  an  Apostle  of 
Christ  was  to  be  an  oiRcer  in  the  Churches  among  all  na- 
tions, it  was  still  to  the  Church  at  Antioch  that  the  Spirit 
said  "  separate  unto  me  Barnabas  and  Saul,"  and  to  it  they 
returned  and  gave  an  account  of  their  labors.  So  that  dur- 
ing the  life-time  and  service  of  these  extraordinary  minis- 
ters it  was  still  through  the  Churches  that  the  work  of  con- 
ducting even  missionary  oj^erations  and  baptisms  was 
conducted. 

It  has  by  many  been  supj^osed  that  baptism  was  specifi- 
cally committed  to  the  ministry  as  such.  If  this  were  con- 
ceded, the  question  would  then  arise  if  it  was  not  committed 
to  them  as  officers  of  the  visible  Churches.  The  Apostles 
indeed  might  have  claimed  a  more  direct  commission.  But 
they  were  extraordinary  oflicers  connected  ^ith  the  first 
establishment  of  Christianity,  and  have  left  no  successors. 
All  the  distinctive  powers  of  ministry  now  come  to  them 
through  the  relations  they  sustain  to  the  visible  Churches. 
This  is  clearly  the  case  in  regard  to  jjastors  and  deacons, 
neither  of  whom  have  any  pecuhar  prerogatives  in  any 
other  Church  than  their  own,  except  by  courtesy  and  invita- 
tion /  not  of  right.  Evangehsts  have  been  considered  offi- 
cers rather  appointed  to  labor  outside  the  bomids  of  any 
Church  for  the  conversion  of  the  world.  But  still  they  are 
always  called  to  engage  in  this  work  by  some  Ansible  Church 
of  which  they  are  members,  through  wliom  their  credentials 
are  received.  Indeed  originally  every  Church  member,  as 
such,  was  an  Evangelist  wherever  he  could  be.  Acts,  viii.  4. 
'  Page  215. 


THE     VISIBLE     CHURCHES.  299 

As  N'eander  has  s1ioa\ti,  and  all  early  Church  history  proves, 
the  distinction  between  the  clergy  and  laity  was  much  less 
marked  at  first  than  it  afterward  became.^  In  regard  to 
the  administration  of  baptism,  this  was  cpxite  as  much  the 
case  as  teaching.  It  belonged  to  the  original  priesthood  of 
all,  at  first,  or  was  at  least  committed  to  them  except  as 
limited  by  the  Church. 

The  Ajjostles  seem  to  have  avoided  the  administration  of 
it  themselves.  Peter  commanded  Cornelius  to  be  baptized 
by  some  of  those  brethren  who  accompanied  him  instead  of 
administering  it  hiuTself.  Hillary,  m  the  fourth  century, 
commenting  on  Eph.  iv.  11,  12,  says,  "at  first,  before 
Churches  were  every  Avhere  established,  aU  taught  and  aU 
baptized ;"  and  again  he  says,  "  it  was  conceded  to  aU  to 
evangeUze  and  to  baptize."  As  Mosheun  says,  "  at  first  aU 
who  were  engaged  in  propagating  Christianity  administered 
this  rite,  nor  can  it  be  called  in  question  that  whoever  per- 
suaded any  person  to  embrace  Christianity  could  baptize 
his  own  disciple.  But  when  the  Churches  became  more 
regulated  and  provided  with  rules  of  order,  the  bishop  alone 
exercised  the  right  of  baptizing."''  But  then  the  bishop  or 
pastor  could  not  do  it  against  the  voice  of  the  Church, 
of  which  he  was  head,  and  Avhose  consent  to  it  was  al- 
ways either  expressed  or  implied,  so  that  it  Avas  by  or 
through  the  Churches  that  the  baptism  was  administered. 
During  the  early  persecutions  none  but  those  who  were  fit 
woidd  desire  baptism  ;  hence  it  needed  but  little  discretion 
and  the  Church  gave  impliedly  a  general  commission  to 
each  of  its  disciples  to  admmister  the  rite  in  its  behalf.  Af- 
terward more  care  was  needed,  and  it  was  restricted  to  the 

1  See  also  Merle  D'Aubigne's  Hist.  Reform,  vol.  i.  pp.  16,  17. 
'  Cent.  1,  part  ii.  chap.  iv.  sec.  8. 


300  THE     COMMON     LAW 

chief  officers  of  the  Church,  But  in  all  this  the  Church 
really  administered  the  rite,  the  individual  only  acted  as  its 
organ. 

But  if  now  Christ  has  committed  this  ordinance  to  the 
visible  Churches  and  given  them  on  earth  the  duty  of  maia- 
taiaing  it,  then  it  is  contrary  to  the  most  obvious  prmciples 
of  common  sense  that  a  Church  should  do  right  in  admit- 
tmg  in  any  numbers  and  to  an  equal  share  of  the  govern 
ment  those  who  neglect  ui  practice  and  even  oppose  on 
principle  that  which  Baptists  have  sho^^^Ti  alone  to  be  true 
baptism.  So  fiir  then  from  its  being  true  as  Robert  Hall 
contends,  and  as  many  siippose,  that  we  are  "  expressly  com- 
manded to  tolerate  in  the  Church  all  those  diversities  of 
opinion  which  are  not  inconsistent  with  salvation,"  some  of 
the  very  objects  for  which  visible  Churches  were  founded, 
must  be  utterly  frustrated  by  the  adoption  of  this  principle. 

No  person  doubts  that  in  primitive  times  every  one  was 
baptized  prior  to  being  admitted  to  the  Lord's  table  or  the 
Church,  The  Rev.  Baptist  Noel  gave  it  as  his  ot\ti  rea- 
son for  submitting  to  this  ordinance,  that  to  approach  the 
Lord's  table  conscious  of  not  being  baptized  "  would  be  to 
act  contrary  to  all  the  precedents  of  Scripture,"  and  Robert 
Hall  concedes  that  "the  members  of  the  primitive  Churches 
consisted  of  only  such  as  were  baptized." 

The  only  question  is  whether  all  this  was  a  mere  casual 
circumstance  as  Robert  Hall  contends,  or  whether  it  was 
from  an  instituted  connection.  Surely  what  we  have  showTi 
above  proves  it  to  have  been  a  pax"t  of  the  great  common 
law  of  primitive  Christianity ;  a  custom  that  arose  in  the 
divine  will,  and  had  in  it  all  the  force  of  a  fundamental  con- 
stitution, since  it  is  clearly  essential  to  one  of  the  purposes 
for  which  Churches  were  established,  i.  e.,  the  perpetuar 


OF     PRIMITIVE     CHRISTIANITY.  301 

tion  of  baptism  by  precept,  example,  and  administration. 
This  connection  is  obvious  in  the  nature  of  things. 

To  all  this  but  one  objection  has  ever  been  suggested. 
In  the  minds  of  many,  there  is  the  idea  of  a  body  interme- 
diate as  it  were  between  the  separate  visible  Churches  of 
Christ  and  "The  Universal  Church,"  which  is  invisible. 
This  body  they  sometimes  call  "  the  Universal  Church  vis- 
ible," and  it  is  supposed  to  consist  of  all  those  who  make 
a  credible  profession  of  the  Christian  religion  throughout 
the  world,  whether  they  possess  it  or  not.  To  this  body 
rather  than  the  smaller  separate  bodies  they  suppose  the 
ordinances  to  be  in  truth  committed. 

There  can  be  no  objection  to  the  figurative  conception  of 
such  a  body  by  thro'wing  all  the  separate  Churches  into  one, 
just  as  a  Gibbon  might  speak  of  the  "  several  detachments  of 
that  immense  army  of  Northern  barbarians,"  which  in  the 
course  of  successive  centuries  overran  Southern  Europe. 
Yet  as  in  such  a  case  we  should  not  conceive  of  a  body  im- 
der  one  general,  or  in  fact,  any  more  one  than  as  actuated 
by  a  common  purpose  which  moved  distinct  tribes  and  or- 
ganizations, so  we  can  not  accurately  speak  of  any  ong  visi- 
ble earthly  Church,  having  constitution,  oiRcers  and  pow- 
ers separate  from  the  visible  Churches  which  are  each  inde- 
pendent bodies.     This  Robert  Hall  has  fully  admitted.^ 

To  any  idea  of  a  proper  Church  Universal  Visible,  there 
are  overwhelming  objections.  There  is  not  any  such  body 
and  never  has  been  since  the  scattering  of  the  first  Church 
in  Jerusalem.  Even  at  the  resurrection  we  shall  be  re- 
ceived according  to  our  membership  or  otherwise  in  the 
invisible  Church.  Not  by  the  profession  of  reUgion,  but  its 
possession. 

'  Terms  of  Communion,  part  2,  sec.  8. 


302  THE     CHUECH     IJNIYERSAL. 

If  there  were  any  such  body,  it  would  be  without  any 
government,  or  assemblies,  or  discipline,  "or  visible  organi- 
zation. So  that  it  can  only  exist  as  an  imaginary  rather 
than  a  real  power — a  body  vaguely  conceived  of,  but  the 
limitations  of  whose  membership  are  variously  viewed  by 
every  different  Christian  without  any  being  more  certainly 
correct  than  the  other.  It  would  be  in  fact  no  more  one 
and  the  same  body,  than  the  rainbow  which  a  thousand  per- 
sons stationed  at  different  points  might  behold  at  one  time. 
Each  would  see  but  one  bow,  but  no  two  would  behold  the 
same. 

Whoever  will  look  into  Church  history  wUl  find  that 
though  the  idea  of  a  Church  Universal  Visible  was  an  error 
which  commenced  very  early,  yet  it  originated  m  confound- 
ing the  outward  profession  of  religion  with  its  inward 
reception — visible  Churches  veith  the  Church  iavisible  ;  and 
that  it  was  from  this  confusion  all  the  worst  errors  of  Popery 
naturally  and  necessarily  evolved  themselves.  This  idea, 
revived  by  Dr.  Pusey,  has  carried  back  several  into  the 
bosom  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  multitudes  to  her 
gates. 

It  has  been  a  matter  of  dispute  between  Presbyterians 
and  CongregationaHsts  if  the  term  Church  (exxi^ja/w)  is 
ever  used  in  the  sense  of  a  Visible  Church  Universal  as  dis- 
tinct from  the  Church  invisible  in  the  New  Testament. 
Robinson  in  his  Lexicon  of  the  Xew  Testament  makes  no 
distinction  of  the  kind.  The  chief  passages  favorable  to 
such  a  view  are  considered  in  my  work  on  connnunion.'  If 
the  term  is  ever  so  used  either  in  the  New  Testament  or  by 
us,  it  can  only  be  in  a  figurative  manner. 

Baptism  is,  therefore  an  ordinance,  the  duty  of  perpetu- 
'  Pages  282-4, 


1    COR.    XI,    18-34.  803 

ating  which  is  committed  to  the  visible  Chiirches  as  such. 
But  a  Church  by  receiving  unbaptized  persons  to  their 
membership  incapacitates  itself  for  rightly  fulfilling  this 
trust,  as  we  have  seen. 

And  if  this  be  true  of  baptism,  how  much  more  obviously 
true  is  it  of  the  Loi'd's  Supper.  It  in  like  manner  is  a 
\isible  Church  ordinance,  one  in  which  the  members  are  on 
this  account  commanded  to  "  tarry  one  for  another."  To  these 
Churches,  as  such,  the  injunction  is  addressed  to  "  do  fhis''^ 
in  remembrance  of  Christ.  The  whole  regulating  power  in 
regard  to  it  is  clearly  committed  to  then\  such  as  deciding 
when  and  where  it  shaU  be  administered,  who  shall  and 
who  shall  not  participate.  They  are  to  put  away  the  im- 
pure and  receive  back  the  penitent,  to  exhort  and  urge  the 
doubting  and  the  lingering,  and  by  preaching  and  example 
perpetuate  the  celebration  of  this  ordinance  to  the  end  of 
time.  Let  any  one  read,  in  the  most  cursory  manner,  1 
Corinthians,  xi.  18-34,  and  he  will  see  the  full  proof  and 
illustration  of  all  this.  The  Church  is  there  spoken  of  as 
"coming  together"  in  assembly  to  eat  the  Supper,'  and 
those  as  "  despising  the  Church"  ^  who  conduct  improp- 
erly m  that  ordinance.  And  the  Apostle  declares  to 
the  Church  at  Corinth  that  he  had  "  delivered''''  it  into  their 
charge  just  as  he  had  received  it  into  his,  as  an  Apostle  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  ^ 

It  is  not  only  committed  to  theii*  care,  but  is  to  be  admin- 
istered among  them  as  a  symbol  among  other  thmgs  of  that 
fraternity  which  they  bear  to  each  other  as  such.  It  there- 
fore unquestionably  indicates  visible  church  relations  as  sub- 
sisting among  all  who  by  right  imite  together  in  its  cele- 
bration. 

"  Verse  18.  "  Verse  22.  »  Verse  23. 


304  A     DISTIXCTIO'Sr    CONSIDERED. 

Occasional  communion  by  in\-itation  must  follow  there- 
fore the  principles  established  for  the  regular  celebration  of 
this  ordinance.  We  may  not  bend  the  rule  to  the  excep- 
tion, but  the  exception  to  the  rule.  And  yet  the  whole 
charge  of  intolerance,  brought  against  the  Baptists  by 
other  denominations,  must  rest  upon  just  this  basis,  and  no 
other,  i.  e.,  that  they  do  not  make  an  exception  in  favor  of 
irregularity,  or  break  down  well-established  and  admitted 
general  principles  to  accommodate  exceptional  occasions. 

A  distinction  is  attempted  sometimes  to  be  drawn  between 
an  admission  to  participate  with  us  at  the  Lord's  Table,  and 
an  admission  to  fellowship  T\Hth  us  in  the  same  Church.  "  It 
is  the  Ziord's  Table,"  it  is  urged,  "  and  hence  we  dare  not 
deny  any  who  are  the  Lord's  children."  But  would  the 
same  persons  be  willing  to  carry  this  out  to  its  legitimate 
conclusion,  that  it  is  our  Church  and  not  the  Lord's,  seeing 
that  we  may  refuse  to  admit  to  the  one  those  whom  we  are 
bound  to  receive  to  the  other.  No,  siirely  it  is  the  Lord's 
Table  and  it  is  the  Lord's  Church.  Both  are  given  by 
Christ  for  specific  purposes,  and  the  former  is  among  other 
things  the  symbol  of  the  other.  The  symbol  can  not  be  ap- 
propriate where  the  thing  signified  is  wanting,  andhence  even 
occasional  commimion  must  follow  the  regulations  of  Church 
membership.  Robert  Hall  cheerfully  admits  this  through- 
out the  whole  discussion." ' 

*  Our  Methodist  brethren  seem  to  admit  the  principle  in  their  Book  of 
Discipline:'  "Xo  person  shall  be  admitted  to  the  Lord's  Supper  among 
us  who  is  guilty  of  any  practice  for  which  we  would  exclude  a  member 
of  the  Church." 

The  Old  School  Presbyterian  General  Assembly  admitted  it  fully  a  few 
years  ago,  when  being  invited  to  unite  with  the  New  School  body  at  the 
Lord's  Table,  with  whom  they  had  dissolved  their  former  ecclesiastical 
1.  Chap.  i.  sec  28,  3. 


EVANGELICAL    ALLIANCES.  305 

Baptists  simply  regard  the  Lord's  Supper  as  a  visible 
Church  ordinance,  and  those  who  partake  by  special  invita- 
tion, as  members  for  the  time  being,  not  destroying  or  al- 
tering the  ecclesiastical  chai'acter  of  the  feast,  nor  making 
it  as  many  loosely  suppose  it,  a  mere  local  celebration  of 
membership  m  the  Church  universal,  eitlier  invisible  or 
visible.  They  do  not  ^dsh  to  facilitate  the  extension  of  an 
error  which  has  broken  down  the  original  liberties  of  Christ's 
Churches,  and  hatched  Popery.  They  therefore  repudiate 
in  common  with  A^ery  many  Pedobaptists,  every  thing  which 
involves  such  mischief. 

We  may,  to  make  this  distmction  more  clear,  regard  the 
evangelical  movements  of  the  present  day,  the  Bible  and 
Tract  Societies,  Evangehcal  AlUances,  and  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations,  as  partial  embodiments  of  this  sup- 
posed visible  Church  Catholic.  By  what  instinct  is  it  then 
that  so  imiformly  at  their  anniversaries  while  their  members 
imite  in  demonstrations  of  Christian  fellowship,  they  do 
not  esteem  it  appropriate  to  unite  in  celebrating  the  Lord's 
Supper,  It  is  because  they  have  instinctively  felt  that  by 
so  doing  they  would  be  in  symbol  formmg  themselves  into 
a  visible  Church,  and  so  interfere  with  the  ecclesiastical  ar- 
rangements of  their  various  bodies.  It  is  not  for  want  of 
Christian  fellowship,  nor  does  it  even  assert  that  they  do 
not  esteem  each  other  worthy  of  a  place  at  the  Lord's 

connections,  they  declined  to  do  so,  substantially  upon  this  very  ground. 
And  yet  how  many  persons  assaQ  the  Baptists  as  uncharitable,  not  for 
regulating  their  Church  membership  as  they  do,  and  as  all  do,  but  for  not 
inviting  to  commune  with  them  those  whom  they  could  not  welcome  to 
their  clmrches.  To  Baptists  it  seems  that  such  invitations,  where  ex- 
tended, must  appear  like  ostentatiously  inviting  a  neighbor  into  the 
piazza,  but  carefully  shutting  the  door  of  the  house. 


306  THE    ANCIENT     OPINION. 

Table  in  their  o^ti  churches.  All  we  ask  is,  that  our  ab- 
staining from  uniting  witli  other  denominations  in  that  or- 
dinance, may  not  be  more  harshly  construed  by  our  Chris- 
tian brethren  than  their  own  hi  the  cu'cmnstance  named. 
We  have  the  more  right  to  expect  this,  as  ui  our  own  de- 
nominational Associations  and  Conventions,  and  missionary 
anniversaries,  we  never  imite  ui  any  of  those  capacities  in 
celebrating  the  Lord's  Supper.  If  it  is  done  at  all,  it  is 
by  the  invitation  of  the  Church  ^yiih  which  we  meet.  This 
is  not  because  we  doubt  the  fitness  of  our  own  brethren, 
certauily,  for  the  ordinance  in  question,  but  because  we 
consider  the  Lord's  Supper  as  belonging  specifically  to 
visible  churches  as  such,  and  would  guard  against  the  idea 
of  symbohcally  clothing  our  voluntary  associations  Tvdth 
Church  authority. 

This  is  no  modern  opinion.  There  are  proofs  abimdant 
that  it  is  the  primitive  view  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  long  pre- 
served even  after  the  idea  of  a  Catholic  Church  visible  had 
seriously  affected  the  independence  of  churches.  From 
the  time  when  the  Ignatian  Epistles  were  written,  down 
for  several  centuries,  the  motto  of  "  but  one  altar  to  a 
church,"  even  where  that  church  embraced  in  fact  several 
congregations,  was  in  practical  operation.  And  the  care 
with  which  it  was  managed  that  each  distinct  visible  bishop- 
ric or  church  should  have  its  own  altar,  or  place  where 
alone  the  Eucharist  might  be  consecrated,  is  a  clear  proof 
that  it  was  esteemed  an  original  and  miportant  truth,  that  the 
Lord's  Supper  was  an  ordinance  committed  and  belonging 
to  the  visible  Churches,  as  distinct  from  any  one  universal 
visible  Church.*     There  is,  as  we  have  seen,  in  1  Corin- 

*  See  Bingham's  Christian  Antiquities,  book  viii.  chap.  vi.  sect.  16,  17  ; 
Curtis  on  Communion,  89,  90. 


CHURCHES     AGGRESSIVE    BODIES.  307 

thians,  xi.  18-34,  direct  proof  that  tliis  idea  belongs  orig- 
inally to  the  Xew  Testament,  and  is  m  fact  part  of  that 
universal  usage  which  marks  it  as  one  of  the  most  radical 
elements  of  the  constitution  of  the  churches. 

Thus,  then,  it  is  clear  that  the  Lord's  Supper  is  given  in 
charge  to  those  visible  Churches  of  Christ,  in  the  midst  of 
which  he  has  promised  to  walk  and  dwell.  Rev.  ii.  1.  To 
each  of  these  it  belongs  to  celebrate  it  as  one  family.  The 
members  of  that  particular  Church  are  to  be  tarried  for, 
and  it  is  to  be  a  symbol  of  their  relations,  as  members,  to 
each  other.  Other  things  are  no  doubt  signified  also,  but 
this  none  the  less.  In  all  ordinary  cases,  it  should  be  par- 
taken of  by  each  Christian  in  the  particular  Church  of  which 
he  is  a  member.  Here  is  the  home  of  ordinances,  and  this 
is  one  of  the  purposes  for  which  these  bodies  are  instituted  ; 
not  alone  for  the  defense  of  Gospel  doctrines,  but  for  the 
advocacy  and  celebration  of  Gospel  ordinances. 

"What  is  more,  the  guardianship  of  these  rites  is  commit- 
ted to  them  alone.  If  they  neglect  it,  there  are  no  other 
persons  to  supply  their  lack  hi  discharging  this  duty. 
What  then  can  be  more  certam  than  that  their  own  united 
obedience  and  hearty  belief  in  them  must  be  preserved  ? 
Nor  are  they  at  liberty  to  enter  mto  any  compromise  or 
deviations  fi-om  the  original  practice  of  the  Church,  which 
shall  im2:»air  their  capacity  for  fulfilling  these  purposes  of 
their  mstitution. 

It  is  one  of  the  specific  objects  of  their  union  to  uphold 
these  things  as  aggressive  bodies,  and  not  merely  as  recep- 
tive. The  power  of  organized  bodies  of  men  to  propagate 
any  truth,  or  revive  one  that  has  been  overlooked,  is  natu- 
rally immense.  It  emboldens  the  timid  and  decides  the 
wavering.     It  incites  to  action,  because  it  exhibits  truth  in 


308  u:n^iox   of   faith   and   symbol. 

action.  Another  and  a  greater  source  of  power  is  the 
present  and  indwelling  Spirit  of  Christ.  A  Church,  there- 
fore, is  both  a  human  and  a  divine  institution.  As  in  man, 
by  the  union  of  soul  and  body,  one  person  is  formed,  of 
powers  greater  than  many  miitedly  would  jiossess  with  but 
one  of  these  alone,  so  is  each  visible  Church  of  Christ  en- 
doAved  with  resources,  strength,  and  influence  illimitable  for 
good,  and  far  transcending  the  sum  of  its  individual  human 
powers.  Its  eflect  on  the  customs  of  society,  for  mstance, 
are  incalculable.  The  morals  and  manners  of  a  nation,  and 
of  an  age,  its  intelligence,  even  its  form  of  government, 
■ndll  generally  have  then'  archetype  in  the  congregations  of 
its  saints. 

He  who  has  given  to  these  bodies  their  peculiar  strength 
— who  first  applied  the  power  of  voluntary  social  organiza- 
tion to  religious  purposes  in  His  OAvn  Churches,  and  has 
guarded,  guided,  and  actuated  that  power  ever  smce, — He 
has  committed  two  sacramental  orduiances  specially  to  their 
care.  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  These,  as  mere  out- 
ward signs,  might  seem  of  little  importance  ;  but  that  He 
has  connected  with  them,  in  a  remarkable  manner,  a  whole 
system  of  docti'uies  and  practice,  of  which  He  has  made 
them  the  spnbols  and  exponents,  to  which  indeed  He  has 
united  them  in  a  unique  manner,  so  that  practically  the 
severing  of  them  should  no  more  be  thought  of  than  the 
disuniting  of  the  body  and  the  soul.  He  has  made  it 
the  duty  of  these  organizations  to  convert  the  world  to 
this  system  of  Christianity,  in  all  its  wholeness,  just  as  He 
delivered  it  to  them,  the  parts  balanced  Hke  the  various 
parts  of  man,  and  adjusted  by  His  own  hand.  They  have 
no  right  to  proclaim  baptism  or  the  Lord's  Supper  without 
the  faith  they  symbolize,  nor  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  the 


THE     CHURCH     AND   THE     BIBLE.  309 

faith  without  the  symbols.  The  body  without  the  soul  is 
a  mere  carcass.  And  the  soul  without  the  body  is  too 
ethereal — it  can  not  be  realized  in  the  present  state.  Sym- 
bol is  the  appointed  dwellmg-place  for  piety,  as  the  body 
for  the  spirit. 

To  the  churches  Christianity  is  thus  committed  in  its 
symmetry  and  wholeness.  The  Bible  is  indeed  its  text- 
book and  standard.  But  each  church  is  a  living  body  to  s 
which  the  Saviour  has  given  in  charge  both  the  oracles 
and  ordinances.  It  is  for  these  churches  to  draw  sustenance 
from  the  Scriptures  and  j^ropagate  the  system  of  life  they 
find  through  the  whole  earth,  by  their  divine  powers,  exam- 
ple, and  organization.  "Ye  are  My  witnesses,  saith  the 
Lord."     "  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world." 

The  Church  and  the  Bible  stand  in  the  same  position  to 
the  guilty  dymg  world  that  the  physician  and  his  books 
stand  to  the  sick  patient.  The  patient  looks  upon  the  phy- 
sician as  the  living  embodiment  of  his  books.  So  the  sin- 
ner looks  to  the  Church  as  the  authorized  exponent  of  what 
Christianity,  as  a  system,  is.  Whether  rightly  or  wrongly, 
each  Church  of  Christ  is  thus  regarded  by  the  great  masses 
of  m.en.  From  this  they  derive  far  more  of  their  relig- 
ious ideas  than  from  any  other  source.  These  two  ordi- 
nances, then,  should  be  upheld  by  the  churches  in  Hving  ex- 
hibition, just  in  the  same  position  as  they  are  placed  in  the 
New  Testament,  and  all  must  admit  that  they  stand  very 
prominently  m  the  sacred  volume. 

The  admixture  of  Baptists  and  Pedobaptists  in  the  same 
Church  would  be  a  great  hinderance  to  both.  All  agree 
that  it  is  a  duty  of  visible  churches  as  such  to  uphold  bap- 
tism to  the  best  of  their  knowledge  and  power,  although 
not  uniting  as  to  the  nature  and  subjects  of  baptism.     But 


310  INDIFFERENCE     TO      ORDINANCES 

mixed  communion  cliurclies  are  formed  upon  the  basis  of 
being  neutral  on  the  whole  question,  and  thus  the  veiy 
prmciple  of  theu*  organization  is  diametrically  opposed  to 
one  great  object  for  which  they  are  constituted.  These 
ends  will  not  be  accomphshed  by  unitmg  those  who  differ 
at  the  zero  of  mdifference  in  regard  to  ordinances.  The 
truth  will  best  finally  be  exhibited  by  each  accompUshing 
separately  what  they  conceive  to  be  their  respective  mis- 
sions, and  mauitaining  the  truth  ia  love. 


The  author  is  aware  that  in  some  of  the  pages  of  this 
last  chapter,  and  thi'oughout  the  whole  of  the  Second  Book, 
he  may  seem  not  to  have  confined  himself  simply,  to  the 
line  of  tracing  what  the  actual  progress  has  been  of  Baptist 
principles,  but,  m  addition,  of  showing  what  he  esteems 
it  logically  ought  to  have  been.  But  the  careful  reader 
wiU  mark  to  what  extent  the  Pedobaptist  authorities 
alluded  to,  sustain  him  in  this  opinion,  or  in  other  words, 
concede  the  pomts  at  issue.  Just  where  one  wi'iter  fails  to 
do  this,  others  have  more  than  suppUed  the  deficiency.  It 
must  also  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  would  be  impossible  fully 
to  show  the  importance  of  each  concession,  except  by  also 
exhibiting  how  little  it  left  unacknowledged,  and  the  nar- 
row and  untenable  nature  of  the  position  to  which  the 
opponents  of  further  progress  or  practical  adhesion  to  Bap- 
tist views  Avere  reduced. 

Let  any  one  consider  the  concessions  made  duiing  the 
past  hundred  years  by  such  men  as  Campbell,  Stuart,  and 
Robinson,  as  to  the  meaning  of  /^a/rT/^w,  or  as  to  the  effect  of 
the  prepositions  and  the  circumstances  and  figures  con- 
nected with  the  administration  of  Baptism.     In  the  chapter 


NOT     CHRISTIAN     UNION.  31^ 

on  the  importance  of  that  rite,  the  author  has  inserted 
more  of  his  own  ideas  than  elsewhere.  Bult  let  any  one 
consider  the  rapid  success  of  Puseyism  as  an  illustration  of 
the  importance  of  a  correct  observance  of  ordinances,  by 
showing  the  results  of  erroneous  views  of  them,  and  by  the 
certainty  of  a  fearfid  reaction  from  the  neglect  of  the  posi- 
ive  institutions  of  Christianity.  Let  him  consider  the  con- 
cessions of  Coleridge,  Bushnell,  Bunsen,  and  the  "  North 
British  Review"  as  to  Avhat  inconsistencies,  and  injurious 
effects  have  ever  arisen  out  of  mfant  baptism ;  and  the  testi- 
Tnonies  that  have  been  exhibited  in  various  ways  by  a" 
Christian  denominations — that  the  ordinances  of  baptism 
and  the  Lord's  Supper  are  committed  to  the  visible 
churches  as  such,  and  he  will  see  how  little  there  is  left 
which  is  now  a  matter  of  fan-  controversy  at  all. 


BOOK  III. 

PRINCIPLES   ALWAYS   HELD   IN   COMMON. 

Ix  order  now  to  perfect  our  view  of  the  progress  of  Bap- 
tist principles  during  the  last  hundred  years,  we  must  mark 
the  advance  of  a  third  class  of  opinions,  namely,  those 
which  Baptists  yet  hold  in  common  with  other  evangelical 
Chi'istians,  but  wliich  require  the  acknowledgment  of 
Baptist  principles  to  be  advocated  with  force  and  consist- 
ency. Some  of  these  are  the  Sufficiency  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture as  a  rule  of  faith  and  practice  ;  Salvation  by  grace 
alone ;  and  the  essential  Priesthood  of  all  Christians, 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    SUTTICIEXCY    OF    HOLY    SCRIPTURE    AS  A  RULE    OF  FAITH 
AST)    PRACTICE. 

The  Roman  Catholic  system  has,  perhaps,  more  clearlj 
and  abundantly  claimed  infallibility  for  the  Church  than  for 
Scripture,  but  all  who  regard  Christianity  as  a  religion  of 
Divine  authority,  admit  that  the  Bible  stands  in  an  unique 
relation  to  man. 


PROTESTANT    VIEW.  313 

At  the  Reformation,  therefore,  one  of  the  great  j^oints  of 
discussion  between  the  Cathohcs  and  Protestants,  was  the 
position  which  ought  to  be  assigned  to  the  sacred  Scrip- 
tures. Luther,  converted  through  their  perusal,  found  them 
the  source  of  his  strengtli,  and  in  his  battles  ^dth  Rome 
he  and  all  his  followers  maiutamed  their  full  sufficiency. 
"  The  foundation  of  articles  of  faith"  said  he,  "  is  the  word 
of  God."  The  sixth  article  of  the  Church  of  England  fairly 
embodies  the  general  Protestant  view  m  opposition  to  that 
of  the  Papists.  "Holy  Scrijjture  containeth  all  things 
necessary  to  salvation,  so  that  whatsoever  is  not  read  therein 
nor  may  be  proved  thereby  is  not  to  be  required  of  any 
man  that  it  should  be  believed  as  an  article  of  the  faith,  or 
be  thought  requisite  or  necessary  to  salvation."  So  im- 
portant is  this  esteemed,  that  in  every  ordination  of  a  Pres- 
byter, and  consecration  of  a  bishop  in  that  Church,  the 
candidate  is  especially  interrogated  on  this  point,  and  has 
to  promise  conformity  to  this  article  in  all  his  teachings. 
Just  in  proportion  as  Protestants  have  been  brought  into 
conflict  with  the  Romish  Church,  this  has  been  the  groimd 
on  which  alone  they  have  planted  themselves  with  success. 
It  is  the  uadependent  and  original  study  of  the  sacred  Rec- 
ords fostered  by  this  great  principle  among  the  masses  of 
the  people,  that  has  produced  the  superiority  of  Protestant 
nations  m  every  point  of  view.  AU  that  the  United  States 
is  at  this  moment,  all  the  superiority  of  her  people  in  mor- 
als and  in  enterprise  over  the  Roman  Catholic  States  of 
this  contment,  she  owes  to  the  rehance  of  her  people  on 
the  Bible  as  the  standard  of  their  faith.  This  is  the  source 
and  safeguard  even  of  her  liberties.  It  is  this  makes  Mas- 
sachusetts what  she  is;  and  the  want  of  it  that  makes 
Mexico  what  she  is.     All  the  brightest  glory  of  England 

14 


314  M.    DE    TOCQUEVILLE. 

can  be  traced  to  this  one  source,  the  Bible  taken  as  the  i  ule 
of  Faith  and  life.  It  has  been  the  foundation  of  national 
virtue  and  greatness  wherever  it  has  gone,  and  a  source  of 
power  such  as  nothmg  else  in  the  whole  history  of  man- 
kind has  produced.' 

If  now  we  look  back  a  hundred  yeai's,  we  shall  perceive 
that  great  progress  has  been  made  in  the  practical  acknowl- 
edgment of  this  sufficiency  and  jDOwer  of  Scripture.  Look 
for  a  moment  particularly  at  the  religious  instruction  of 
youth.  One  hundred  years  ago,  and  the  chief  means  for  ac- 
comjihshing  this  were  Catechisms  and  creeds  committed  to 
memory,  in  place  of  those  fresh  living  views  of  truth  dra'vvn 
from  the  Word  of  God,  in  the  Sabbath  School  and  Bible 
class  systems  which  now  prevail.  A  very  unportant  branch 
of  literature  has  sprung  up,  designed  to  render  the  study 
of  the  Bible  popular  and  pleasant  to  children,  and  its  his- 
tories and  truths  familiar. 

When  M.  de  TocqueviUe  \dsited  the  institutions  of  the 
country,  a  few  years  ago,  he  went,  among  other  places,  of  a 
Sabbath  mornmg,  to  one  of  the  largest  Sabbath  Schools  in 
the  city  of  New  York.  Brought  up  in  Roman  Catholic  or 
infidel  France,  he  had  never  beheld  such  a  sight  before. 
Some  hundreds  of  happy  children  all  had  Sibles  in  their 
hands.  He  had  only  seen  them  taught  religion  by  Cate- 
chisms and  forms  of  prayer.  "  What,"  he  exclaimed,  "  do 
you  let  each  of  these  young  people  read  the  Bible  ?" 
"  Yes."     "  And  do  you  found  your  whole  system  of  instruc- 

1  Let  any  one  who  doubts  the  above,  read  the  history  of  Pitcairn's 
Island,  and  see  the  effect  of  the  Bible  as  a  foundation  of  all  the  laws 
of  old  Adams,  and  of  that  authority  which  secured  theh  obedience.  He 
will  never  again  question  the  amazing  power  of  the  Scriptures  in  a  po 
Utical  point  of  view. 


POPISH     OBJECTIONS.  315 

tion  directly  on  the  Bible  ?"  "  Yes."  "  And  is  this  done 
in  yonr  Sabbath  Schools  generally  throughout  the  country  ?" 
"  Yes."  "  And  do  all  the  children  attend  '?"  "  Very  gen- 
erally." "  It  must  produce  a  profound  impression  iii^on  the 
national  character,"  was  the  reply  of  that  sagacious  philoso- 
pher. 

But  the  Roman  CathoUcs  have  naturally  turned  upon  all 
Protestants,  and  appealed  to  infant  baptism  as  an  unfailmg 
proof  of  the  authority  of  tradition  and  of  the  Church,  and 
of  the  insufficiency  of  Scripture.  They  have  said  again  and 
again,  "  we  have  substituted  sprinklmg  for  unmersion  hy  the 
authority  of  the  Church.  What  other  authority  can  you 
show  for  this  ?  Scripture  is  against  you,  and  the  very 
meanmg  of  the  word  is  against  you.  You  baptize  infants^ 
where  is  your  authority  ?  Tliis  can  not  be  proved  from  the 
Bible  without  the  aid  of  tradition.  We  believe  in  it  on  the 
authority  of  the  Church,  but  if  you  rely  so  much  on  the 
Bible  alone  you  must  give  it  up  as  unauthorized."  Nor 
have  Protestants  generally  been  fairly  able  to  meet  this. 
And  hence  among  them  aU  there  has  been  more  or  less  of 
shrinking  practically  from  the  full  sufficiency  of  Scripture, 
and  a  disposition  to  rely  in  part  upon  tradition. 

In  no  denomination  has  this  tendency  manifested  itself  so 
strongly  as  in  the  Episcopal  Church,  both  in  England  and  in 
this  country  ;  and  that  chiefly  in  the  form  of  Puseyism.  In 
England  it  began  among  the  clergy.  They  were  anxious 
to  make  head  against  the  growing  popularity  and  evangeli- 
cal power  of  the  dissenters,  by  pretending  to  a  degree  of  au- 
thority in  matters  of  faith  which  the  non-conformist  mmis- 
ters  utterly  dLSclaimcd  as  grossly  superstitious  and  idola- 
trous. To  such  a  degree  of  approach  to  Romanism  did  this 
at  length  proceed,  that  in  the  celebrated  Tract,  No.  90,  it  is 


316  TRADITION TEACTS    FOE    THE   TIMES. 

boldly  stated  that  "  In  the  sense  ui  which  it  is  commonly 
tmderstood  at  this  day,  Scnj)tnre,  it  is  plain,  is  not^  on  An- 
glican prmciples,  the  rule  of  faith."  "  All  dilRculties  in  the 
interpretation  of  Scripture  would  be  removed,  or  nearly 
so,  would  we  but  yield  our  private  interpretations  to  the 
sense  of  the  Church  Catholic  whenever  that  can  be  ascer- 
tained." ' 

But  such  doctrines  could  only  be  made  to  appear  plausi- 
ble by  appealmg  to  the  common  belief  in  infant  baptism  in 
proof  of  the  doctrme  of  tradition.  This  is  done  over  and 
over  again.  The  language  of  Field  is  quoted  and  referred 
to  m  these  Tracts  to  prove  tradition  by  infant  baptism,  thus, 
"  The  fourth  kind  of  tradition  is  the  continued  practice  of 
such  thuigs  as  are  neither  contained  in  the  Scriptures  ex- 
vressly,  nor  the  examples  of  such  practice  expressly  there 
delivered^  though  the  grounds,  reasons,  and  causes  of  the 
necessity  of  such  practice  be  there  contamed  ;  and  the 
benefit  or  good  that  foUo  weth  of  it.  Of  this  sort  is  the  hap- 
tism  of  infants,  which  is  therefore  named  a  tradition,  be- 
cause it  is  not  expressly  delivered  in  Scripture  that  the 
Apostles  did  baptize  mtants,  nor  an  express  jirecept  there 
found  that  they  should  do  so."^  Bishop  White  and  Mon- 
tague are  also  cited  as  more  unqualifiedly  still  speaking  of  in- 
flmt  baptism,  as  practiced  upon  tradition  alone,  and  "  of 
which  it  may  be  declared  that  Scripture  teacheth  nothing.''''  ^ 
Directly  the  Puseyite  is  put  to  the  proof,  he  retires  back 
to  infant  baptism.  It  is  perhaps  in  Scripture,  he  thinks, 
but  certainly  not  on  it.  It  can  be  wi-ought  out  by  the 
aid  of  tradition,  but  it  can  not  be  proved  from  the  Bible 
alone. 

'  Carry's  Testimony  of  the  Fathers  to  the  thirty-nine  Articles,  Pref.  p.  2. 
2  Tract  No.  n,  p.  429.  '  Pages  431,  433,  American  edition. 


APPEALS  TO    "the   FATHERS."  31*7 

The  Presbyterian  and  Congregationalist  may  have  pro- 
fessed to  such  men  formerly  that  they  could  prove  mfant 
baptism  from  the  Bible.  But  the  "North  British  Review" 
now  has  openly  given  all  this  up,  and  directly  Pedobaptists 
turn  round  to  meet  the  Baptists,  their  main  reliance  is,  and 
ever  has  been,  certam  scraps  of  the  fathers  and  of  Church 
history,  half  quoted  and  worse  imderstood.  Even  these 
are  now  being  abandoned ;  and  Glmrch  authority  and  dis- 
cretionary power  are  boldly  appealed  to  as  suflicient  by 
Coleridge,  Neander,  Buusen,  etc.  In  a  word  infant  baptism 
essentially  rests  uj^on,  and  proves  to  those  who  believe  m  it, 
the  insufficiency  of  Holy  Scripture  as  a  rule  of  faith  and 
practice,  and  the  great  authority  if  not  the  supremacy  of 
tradition  or  the  Church. 

Let  any  one  take  up  a  defense  of  infant  baptism,  no  mat- 
ter by  what  denomination  prepared,  or  on  what  gromid  it 
is  based,  and  he  "will  be  astonished  at  the  vast  parade  of 
"  the  Fathers."  Except  our  Eijiscopalian  brethren,  none  use 
much  of  this  1-dnd  of  argument  on  other  occasions  ;  hence 
the  mistakes  which  many  make  when  they  try  to  employ 
it  as  to  this  rite.  But  the  chief  misfortune  of  it  all  lies  in 
teaching  the  poor  man  that  the  Scriptures  are  not  sufficient 
as  a  rule  of  faith.  The  practical  result  is  that  the  real  ap- 
peal in  regard  to  this  controversy  is  made  to  a  very  large, 
rare,  and  expensive  class  of  wi'itiugs,  which  few  are  famiUar 
with,  and  which  few  could  even  read  if  they  had  them. 
Every  time  mfant  baptism  is  called  in  question,  the  mass  of 
Pedobaptists  have  to  go  to  their  ministers  for  arguments. 
The  Bible,  they  are  forced  to  confess,  seems  to  favor  our  views, 
but  their  minister  tells  them  that  something  else  is  the  true 
sense.  And  he  in  turn  either  has  to  become  a  Baptist,  or  else 
is  obliged  to  set  up  in  his  o"\vn  heart,  without  j^erhaps  doing 


318  RIGHTFUL    CHURCH     AUTHORITY 

SO  in  set  words,  the  authority  of  the  Church  as  superior 
to  that  of  the  BiWe,  since  he  beheves  implicitly  the  ap- 
parent teaching  of  the  one  at  the  expense  of  beHeving  the 
apparent  teaching  of  the  other.  In  this  way  a  supreme  re- 
Jiance  upon  human  authority,  in  matters  of  reUgion,  becomes 
imperceptibly  an  estabhshed  custom  and  habit.  Infant 
baptism  thus  is  made  the  entering-wedge  of  a  priaciple 
which  forms  and  molds  the  whole  religious  character,  laying 
the  most  substantial  basis  for  Romanism. 

Far  be  it  from  us  to  wish  to  overthrow  respect  for  the 
proper  Scrij^ture  authority  of  each  true  Christian  Church. 
But  all  submission  of  miad  Avliich  leads  men  to  receive  on 
authority  that  which  can  not  be  ultimately  substantiated  by 
the  reasons  professed,  must  at  some  time  give  a  severe  shock 
to  true  faith.  It  vnW  produce  a  skepticism  m  regard  to  aU 
those  subjects  which  are  most  easily  received  at  first 
through  confidence,  m  the  judgment  of  others ;  and  pre- 
vent the  knowledge  of  the  Avise  becoming  useful  to  the 
masses,  except  just  so  far  as  they  are  able  at  once  to  follow 
out  the  processes  of  reasoning  involved,  with  full  confidence 
in  their  own  judgments. 

The  Baptists  have  been  distinguished  for  their  close  at- 
tachment to  the  Scriptures.  They,  and  they  alone,  have 
never  appealed  to  any  thing  else  for  proof  of  any  portion 
of  their  faith  and  practice,  as  Christians.  This  has  not  been 
from  any  doubt  as  to  the  value  and  corroboration  afibrded 
by  an  impartial  examination  of  Church  history.  One  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  and  more  before  ISTeander  and  the 
German  scholars  generally  had  arrived  at  the  conclusions 
now  becoming  so  universal  as  to  infant  baptism  and  the 
original  pohty  of  the  Chu.rch,  Baptists  had  arrived  at  these 


THE    MISSIONARY    MOVEMENT.  319 

same  conclusions,  published  them  to  the  world,  and  fully 
verified  them  by  early  Church  history. 

But  it  has  been  the  principle  involved  wliich  has  made 
them  rely  on  the  Scriptures  alone^  as  a  sufficient  appeal  in 
all  cases  of  controversy.  The  Bible  and  a  Christian  expe- 
rience in  the  heart  are  the  only  weapons  needed.  All  the 
rest  has  ever  been  regarded  by  them  as  Saul's  armor. 
They  have  preferred  the  simpler  sling  and  stone  of  David. 

The  simplicity  of  this  principle  has  been  favorable  to 
their  success.  It  is  one  capable  of  being  wielded  by  a 
plowboy  or  tinker  with  immense  effect,  as  the  writings  of 
the  dreamer  of  Bedford  Jail  have  sho^^^l.  Its  simplicity 
also  has  given  those  who  adhere  to  it,  courage,  boldness, 
and  strength  to  xmdertake  the  most  difficult  duties. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  how  this  simple  prmciple  has 
practically  given  strength,  within  the  last  hundred  years, 
to  a  comparatively  small  denomination,  poor  and  for  the 
most  part  uneducated,  and  caused  them  thus  to  produce 
the  leaders  m  many  of  those  enterprises  which  have  most 
tended  to  spread  the  Word  of  God  among  the  nations ; 
enterprises  which  have  even  given  to  the  age  its  chief  re- 
ligious characteristics. 

The  Missionary  system  now  requires  no  very  extraor- 
dinary amount  of  reliance  m  the  "Word  of  God,  because 
faith  is  largely  turned  to  sight.  But  it  was  a  very  different 
matter  when  the  father  of  the  modern  Enghsh  missionary 
movements,  William  Carey,  sailed  from  the  shores  of  Eng- 
land in  1793.  This  "consecrated  cobbler,"  as  Sydney 
Smith,  with  desecrated  wit,  facetiously  termed  him,  was 
for  years  the  laughing-stock  of  the  Reviewers,  and  of  the 
Churchmen,  both  high  and  low.  For  a  long  time  he  plied 
liis  awl  for  a  living,  with  a  Hebrew  Bible  and  a  map  of  the 


320  CAKEY JUDSON. 

world  alternately  spread  out  before  him,  Tliat  Bible  he 
had  taken  for  his  rule  of  faith,  and  there  he  had  read  : 
"  Ask  of  me,  and  I  will  give  thee  the  heathen  for  an  in- 
heritance, and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  eai'th  for  a  pos- 
session." He  turned  to  his  majj  of  the  world,  blackened 
over  all  the  parts  yet  lying  in  heathen  darkness,  and  then 
his  faith  in  the  word  of  God,  and  that  alone,  assured  him 
of  a  fact  to  which  all  around  hun  were  asleep,  i.  e,,  that  there 
must  be  a  brighter  day  reserved  for  the  Chm-ch,  and  that 
it  was  the  duty  of  Christians  to  ask  the  Father  in  the  naine 
of  the  Son,  and  then  to  rise  and  take  possession  of  those 
vast  regions,  in  the  authority  of  Christ  their  Kiug.  It  was 
a  case  of  the  most  simple  unmixed  faith  in  the  promises 
and  commands  of  Scrij^ture  alone ;  and  against  aU  human 
encouragement  and  prospect  of  success,  it  led  hun  forth 
without  fortune  and  without  outfit  for  his  voyage,  or  per- 
mission to  laud,  or  means  of  support.  But  he  went  down 
into  the  well,  amid  its  dai'kness,  damps,  and  vapors,  guided 
by  the  bright  safety-lamp  of  God's  Word,  and  by  it  alone. 
The  heads  of  his  great  missionary  sermon  showed  the 
soUtary  principle  which  unpelled  him  :  "  Expect  great 
things  from  God  ;  and,  attempt  groat  things  for  God." 

It  was  this  implicit  reUance  on  the  Bible  alone  m  William 
Carey,  that  awoke  Protestant  nations  to  that  modern 
missionary  movement  which  is  now  beginning  to  reap  the 
harvest  of  the  world. 

A  swelling  wave  of  this  strong  impulse  soon  spread 
across  the  broad  Atlantic,  and  swept  Judson  and  his  com- 
panions to  this  great  work,  then  all  Congregationalists  in 
sentiment,  yet  animated  by  the  same  spirit.  But  the 
feeling  of  allegiance  to  the  New  Testament  caused  Judson 
to  become  a  Baptist  also.    In  fact,  faith  in  the  sufficiency  of 


CHINESE     INSTRUCTION.  321 

Scripture  made  liim  all  he  was,  all  he  ever  became.  And 
thus  began  chiefly  those  great  missionary  enterprises  of 
England  and  America  which  are  now  truly  the  most 
successful  and  astonishmg  in  the  world.  They  have  raised 
the  Sandwich  Islands  to  the  rank  of  a  civilized  people,  and 
are  fast  scattermg  the  seeds  of  life,  liberty,  and  love  among 
the  heathen  nations  of  the  earth.  In  fact,  the  Word  of 
God  is  at  this  moment  exhibiting  a  power,  through  its  mis- 
sionary operations,  as  extraordinaiy  in  its  political  effects 
upon  the  world  at  large,  as  ui  the  early  centuries  ujion  the 
Roman  emj^ire. 

A  few  years  ago  an  uncouth  missionary  was  preaching  in 
Canton,  when  a  Chinese  student  applied  to  be  taught  the 
outlines  of  the  Christian  system,  and  finally  for  baptism. 
This  latter  was  refused  from  a  just  fear  that  the  Gospel  had 
not  a  sufiicient  hold  upon  the  young  man's  heart,  but  that 
young  man  took  the  same  method  of  imparting  Christian 
truth  tliat  he  had  seen  practiced  by  the  missionaries  with 
whom  he  had  resided,  and  through  these  Biblical  instructions, 
imperfectly  conveyed,  spread  around  him  a  knowledge  of 
Christian  truth.  At  length  the  authorities,  ofticers  of  the 
Tartar  dynasty,  interfered  arbitrarily  and  cruelly,  and  the 
community  of  the  ancient  Chinese  rose  really  in  defense  of 
religious  liberty.  Thus  commenced  the  present  insm-rec- 
tion,  and  that  student  was  the  acknowledged  head  of  the 
existing  movement.  Whatever  may  be  the  political  results, 
whatever  the  rehgious  superstitions  involved,  whatever  the 
motives  in  the  hearts  of  the  leaders,  God  only  knows  ;  but 
it  is  in  the  midst  of  such  confused  scenes  that  God  is  carry- 
ing the  knowledge  of  the  Bible  and  of  Christ,  to  the  hearts 
of  the  millions  of  Chinese  by  the  lips  of  their  OAvn  country- 
men, as  they  never  could  have  been  conveyed  in  centuries 

14* 


322  POWER     OF    THE     BIBLE 

by  foreign  missionaries.  Xor  do  the  sujjerstitions  appear 
to  be  more  numerous  or  important  than  might  be  naturally 
expected,  or  than  early  Church  history  shows  to  have  at- 
tended the  first  rapid  spread  of  the  Gospel  among  the  hea- 
then nations,  and  even  the  Jews. 

Three  principles  which  characterize  this  movement, 
give  it  great  hopefulness.  It  guarantees  full  rehgious  lib- 
erty, it  jDromotes  the  cu'culation  of  the  Scriptures  in  large 
quantities,  and  it  makes  war  ujDon  the  use  of  opiimi  and  aU 
intoxicating  hquors. 

Just  before  the  rise  of  the  movement,  so  discouraging 
had  matters  appeared  to  the  eyes  of  Christians  in  tliis 
country,  that  they  had  begim  to  despair  of  any  large  re- 
sults in  Chma.  We  were  told  that  there  were  not  so  many 
converts  as  missionaries,  after  more  than  twenty  years  of 
labor ;  that  they  were  a  cold,  hard,  pohshed  people,  not 
with  hearts  hke  other  men,  but  ^^•ithout  any  real  religious 
chai'acter  to  work  upon.  Missionary  boards  were  utterly 
discouraged  mitil  this  news  suddenly  burst  upon  them. 
No  man  can  yet  foresee  the  results  of  this  movement  en- 
tirely ;  but  some  thhigs  have  been  demonstrated,  namely, 
that  the  Chinese  are  not  the  cold,  hard,  atheistic  people 
they  used  to  be  imagined.  Xow  it  seems  that  superstition 
is  the  chief  lault.  It  may  be  that  Christianity  is  to  operate 
here  primarily  as  the  rod  of  iron  dashmg  m  pieces  the  pot- 
ter's vessel.  How  often  does  it  really  seem  to  act  on 
governments  like  the  fabled  island  of  loadstone,  which  first 
drew  the  vessels  to  it  through  then*  iron  bolts,  and  then 
drew  out  all  the  bolts  that  held  them  together.  So  Chris- 
tianity by  absorbmg  and  dra^^ing  to  itself  through  its  own 
holiness  and  attractiveness  aU  the  elements  of  good,  is  the 
occasion  unquestionably  of  many  a  rotten  system  of  govern- 


COMPARED     WITH     "tHE    CIIUKCH."  323 

ment  and  of  iuiqmty,  dissolving  and  dropping  to  pieces  of 
its  owTi  weight,  as  the  walls  of  Jericho  fell  flat  before  the 
ram's  horns  of  Joshua  and  of  the  priests.  The  destructive 
energy  of  Christianity  thus  actmg  with  the  force  of  mii-acle, 
prepares  the  way  for  faith  m  its  power  as  a  reconstructive 
system.  One  tiling  is  indeed  certain,  the  New  Testament 
as  the  rule  of  faith,  has  given  to  the  modern  missions  of 
Protestantism,  their  energy  and  success,  and  all  their  supe- 
riority over  those  conducted  by  the  Papists. 

Wherever  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  have  gone,  they 
have  first  taken  pains  to  establish  the  authority  of  the  Church, 
just  where  we  put  that  of  the  Bible.  This  has  been  the 
characteristic  difl:erence,  and  this  has  led  to  the  different 
results.  A  few  years  ago.  Dr.  Wiseman  treated  with  scorn 
the  attempts  of  Protestant  missionaries  as  perfect  failures 
compared  with  those  of  Rome,  seeing  that  we  could  only 
count  up  a  very  few  thousands  as  the  result  of  our  last  fifty 
years'  labor  and  expenditures,  while  the  Catholics  could 
boast  of  millions.  It  was  in  vain  we  pointed  out  that  for 
real  power  and  knowledge  and  piety  our  thousands  were 
worth  more  than  their  millions,  that  our  humblest  converts 
were  in  character  better  than  their  saints.  They  looked 
and  cared  alone  for  numbers,  and  all  whom  they  could  get, 
whether  adults  or  children,  if  submitted  to  their  sprinkling, 
they  accounted  converts.  On  the  contrary,  modern  Protest- 
ant missions  have  been  founded  on  the  Word  of  God  as  the 
■jule  of  fiiith  and  practice.  Hence  they  have  bestowed  far 
iiore  labor  on  the  work  of  translating  the  Scriptures,  and 
this  has  seemed  for  years  to  retard  their  labors.  Francis 
Xavier's  zeal  was  splendid  and  brilliant  m  its  way,  like  some 
sudden  charge  of  cavalry,  that  seemed  to  carry  all  before  it. 
He  baptized  thousands  where  our  missionaries  would  hardly 


324  CAREY     AND     XATIJiR     COXTRASTED. 

have  bai^tized  one.  He  swept  every  thing  before  his  face, 
but  the  enemy  closed  in  overwhelming  masses  on  his  rear, 
as  where  cavalry  are  not  supported  by  infantry,  and  the  re- 
sults of  his  labors  were  comparatively  fruitless  of  permanent 
spmtual  results. 

"WilUam  Carey  hardly  baptized  a  hundred  at  Serampore, 
where  Xa^ier  would  have  sprinkled  a  miUion,  and  such  has 
been  the  contrast  every  where.  But  then  as  to  the  amount 
of  good  actually  done  on  a  broad  scale,  the  results  are  to 
be  estimated  differently.  The  Jesuit  missionaries,  as  a 
whole,  have  passed  through  many  lauds  Uke  the  whirhvhid 
through  the  desert.  They  seem  to  achieve  sweej^ing  suc- 
cess, but  leave  ruin  and  desolation  in  their  track.  They 
change  the  name  of  the  heathen  gods,  but  leave  the  people 
idolaters ;  baptize  the  images,  and  call  them  saints.  But 
take  away  the  Papal  priests  for  a  few  years,  and  their  con- 
verts relapse  without  any  sensible  change.  They  multiply 
churches  as  rapidly  as  travelers  pitch  theii*  tents,  because 
they  have  no  foundation  to  dig.  On  the  other  hand,  Bap- 
tists have  dug  deep,  because  building  for  eternity,  and  the 
fomidation  once  laid  on  the  Rock  of  Ages,  and  the  under- 
ground work  done,  the  superstructure  is  easily  erected  and 
lasts,  because  solid.  If  any  one  in  this  point  of  view  com- 
pares Protestant  missions  generally,  with  Catholic,  they  will 
be  astonished  at  the  difference.  The  conversion  of  the  na/- 
tives  has  been  delayed  for  the  work  of  translation,  baffled 
by  disease,  weakened  by  deaths,  and  yet  more  real  progress 
has  been  made  by  Protestants  for  the  overthrow  of  hea- 
thenism in  Asia,  in  fifty  years,  than  Roman  Catholics  have 
made  in  ages.  And  with  us  the  Avork  is  only  just  beginning, 
while  theirs  is  bemg  brought  to  a  close.  Protestant  mis- 
sions in  twenty  years,  have  produced  more  sensible  results 


BIBLICAL    TRANSLATIONS.  325 

in  the  three  hundred  milUons  of  Chma,  than  the  Roman 
Cathohc  eflbrts  in  ten  centuries. 

The  press  occupies  a  very  diflerent  position  among  Prot- 
estants from  what  it  does  among  Papists,  because  when 
men  have  learned  to  read  the  Bible  they  have  acquired  the 
key  of  all  knowledge  and  the  desire  to  enter  its  opened  door. 
The  work  of  translation  is  infinitely  more  prominent  in  the 
one  than  in  the  other.  This  has  caused  our  success.  And 
if  it  be  asked  what  has  made  this  great  difference  m  the 
two  methods  of  operation,  we  must  look  for  it  in  the  type 
of  labor  first  entered  upon  by  the  pioneers  in  this  enter- 
prise. We  must  look  for  the  germ  of  it  very  greatly  m 
the  mission  presses  of  Serampore. 

William  Carey  and  his  associates  had  been  accustomed 
to  prove  every  thing  by  Scripture.  Of  strong  sense  but 
ignorant  of  philosojihy,  and  of  Church  history,  the  Bible 
and  experimental  religion  were  their  great  resorts.  Wil- 
liam Carey  could  as  soon  have  made  shoes  without  a 
last,  as  a  discourse  Avithout  his  Bible.  Hence  before  the 
Bajjtists  could  fairly  get  to  work  they  must  translate 
the  Bible.  The  herculean  labors  of  this  kind  already 
performed  by  Protestant  missions,  within  the  last  fifty 
years,  probably  exceed  aU  that  was  done  in  eighteen  hun- 
dred years  before.  Languages  have  been  reduced  to  writ- 
ing, grammars  made,  lexicons  formed,  the  Bible  translated, 
and  nations  been  taught  to  read  its  pages  of  everlasting 
life. 

Comparatively  few,  poor  and  ignorant  as  the  Baptists 
were,  when  Carey  started  on  his  great  mission,  it  could 
little  have  been  expected  that  they  should  have  been  able 
at  all  to  keep  pace  with  other  Protestants  in  the  blessed 
rivalry  of  translating  and  giving  the  Word  of  God  to  the 


326  BIBLE    SOCIETIES. 

heathen.  And  yet  on  exammation  it  will  be  found  that 
they  have  done  far  more  than  then-  natural  proportion  in 
this  great  work,  even  among  Protestant  missionaries  who 
have  all  wrought  nobly.  Carey  translated  the  Bible  into 
one  language,  and  Judson  into  another,  and  thus  the  work 
was  begun  by  English  and  thus  by  American  Christian 
missionaries. 

If  now  from  the  work  of  translating  the  Scriptures  we 
turn  to  that  of  distributing Aheva.^  nobly  have  the  Bible  So- 
cieties of  Europe  and  America  all  wrought.  They  have 
reduced  the  price  of  the  Bible  so  that  what  the  whole  labor 
of  a  Avorking  man  for  a  life  tune  v>'ould  hardly  have  pro- 
cured hun  before  prhiting  was  invented,  may  now  be  pur- 
chased for  a  quarter  of  a  dollar,  or  the  worth  of  his  labor 
for  an  hour  or  two.  Forty  millions  of  Bibles  and  Testa- 
ments have  been  put  into  cu-culation  since  Bible  Societies 
arose ;  while  but  four  milUon  had  been  jjubUshed  in  the  eight- 
een hmidred  years  before.  Protestants  have  spread  the  bless- 
ed book,  not  only  over  the  civiUzed  world,  but  among  heathen 
nations,  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  difterent  tongues,  and 
dialects,  with  a  profusion  and  success  that  must  make  the 
work  of  ministers  at  home  and  missionaries  abroad  quite 
different,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  far  more  successful,  in  futm-e 
than  heretofore. 

But  here  again  the  mind  that  first  conceived  of  the  form- 
ation of  a  Bible  Society  was  Rev.  "William  Hughes,  a 
Baptist.  He  formed  the  idea,  drew  np  the  circular  that 
called  it  into  existence,  wi'ought  out  the  plan,  and  for  years 
watched  over  its  success.  Indeed  it  has  been  declared  by 
an  impartial  and  cotemporary  authority,  that  "  the  Bible 
Society  was  almost  entirely  the  result  of  his  suggestions."  ^ 
•  "London  Christian  Guardian,"  in  his  obituary  notice. 


THE    CHARGE    OP    BIBLIOLATEY.  32V 

Let  no  injustice  be  done  to  otlier  denominations.  Tliey 
have  had  the  honor  of  doing  more,  far  more  than  Baptists 
have  in  spreading  the  Bible  among  all  nations.  They  have 
had  wealth,  and  niunbers,  and  influence  that  we  have  not 
possessed.  And  many  of  them  have  manifested  a  zeal  and 
UberaUty  which  could  not  have  been  excelled.  But  yet  it 
may  be  questioned  if  it  has  been  altogether  by  accident,  or 
not  m  part  by  the  force  of  inherent  principles  and  owing 
to  Baptists  being,  hi  fact,  men  of  one  Book,  that  they  have 
furnished  the  pioneers  to  the  extent  which  has  been  shown 
to  those  modern  movements  which  form  the  hope  of  the 
age — Foreign  Missions — BibUcal  translations  and  the  chcu- 
lation  of  the  Bible  without  restriction  and  without  com- 
ment. 

These  are  the  great  religious  enterprises  of  the  times,  giv- 
ing to  the  present  age  its  deepest  mterest  and  to  the  future 
its  brightest  hopes.  All  certainly  are  developments  of  that 
great  priacij^le,  the  poioer  and  suficieticy  of  Scripture. 

Nor  is  this  principle  worn  out,  waxhig  old,  and  ready  to 
vanish  away  as  many  supj^ose  who  are  iaveighing  against 
the  "  Bibholatry"  of  the  present  age.  It  has  done  much, 
but  it  has  got  to  do  still  more.  The  rehgion  of  Jesus 
Chi'ist  as  a  system  of  doctrines  and  practice,  is  threatened 
now  as  never  before,  by  Roman  CathoUcism  on  the  one 
hand,  and  German  RationaUsm  on  the  other.  Both  of 
these  profess  a  sort  of  Christianity  and  offer  it  the  tribute 
of  a  professed  veneration.  So  that  now  the  great  question 
is,  how  are  we  to  determme  and  to  prove  what  is  true 
Christian  faith  ?  Where  are  we  to  draw  the  line  between 
it  and  superstition,  as  between  it  and  infidelity.  A  Ime 
must  be  drawn  somewhere ;  and  in  all  simpUcity  we  plead 
that  it  should  be  drawn  just  here.     That  system  of  religion 


328  THE     CONSTITUTIONAL    TEXT-BOOK. 

which  Christ  and  His  Apostles  taught,  and  which  is,  there- 
fore, recorded  ui  the  Xew  Testament,  that  and  nothing 
else  is  pure  Christianity. 

And  Christianity  not  only  as  a  system  of  doctrines,  but 
also  of  ecclesiastical  relations,  must  be  defined  in  the  same 
manner.  Within  the  last  few  years  much  has  been  said 
and  written  about  "  the  Church."  The  German  boasts  of 
this  as  an  age  of  historico-philosophical  reconstruction 
which  is  to  erect  what  he  calls  the  Christian  Church  em- 
bodying all  the  developments  and  cutting  off  all  the  abuses 
of  the  past  eighteen  hundred  years.  He  claims  a  right  to 
alter  m  the  name  of  sentiment,  beauty,  and  expediency. 
Even  Bunsen  wishes,  as  Ave  see,  to  "  reforiu  the  doctrines 
of  the  Bible."  The  Roman  Catholic  professes  an  inherent 
right  in  the  Church  by  viitue  of  a  supposed  indwelling  Di- 
vine authority  resting  in  the  successors  of  St.  Peter,  to  do 
the  same.  The  Anglican  party  in  the  Episcopal  Church, 
makes  the  same  claim  in  behalf  of  the  Three  Orders  of  that 
denomination.  But  all  of  these  have  overlooked  the 
broader,  deeper  question  which  concerns  not  Church  gov- 
ernment but  Church  existence.  Not  who  are  the  proper 
officers,  but  who  are  the  proper  members.  The  Church  is 
the  assembly  not  the  rulers,  the  people  not  the  Priests. 
The  government  of  a  coimtry  or  of  a  society  is  one  thing, 
the  citizensliip  quite  another.  France  changed  her  gov- 
ernment thirteen  times  in  fifty  years,  but  the  French  nation 
never  ceased  to  exist.  There  is  something  infinitely  more 
vital  to  a  Chm-ch  than  how  many  orders  shall  compose  its 
officers,  i.  e.,  what  constitutes  the  terms  of  memhership  f 
This  question  can  not  be  determined,  hardly  discussed  un- 
til  the  New  Testament  is  respected  as  the  only  constitu- 
tional Text-Book  of  the  Christian  Church,  instead  of  being 


JUSTIFICATION    BY    GRACE.  329 

ignored  as  jt  is  practically  by  all  these  systems,  modern  and 
antiquated,  that  of  Chevalier  Bimsen  no  less  than  that  of 
Cardinal  Wiseman,  and  all  in  between. 


CHAPTER    II. 

SALVATIOK    BY    GEACE    ALOXE. 

In  all  ages  men  have  built  their  hopes  of  salvation  either 
upon  their  o^vn  good  works,  or  upon  the  grace  of  God ; 
or  upon  some  admixture  of  the  two.  The  doctrine  of  St. 
Paul  unquestionably  is,  that  we  are  justified  by  faith  alone, 
and  not  by  the  deeds  of  the  law.  That  our  salvation  is 
"  not  of  works,  lest  any  man  should  boast ;"  but  that  it  is 
by  grace  alone  we  are  saved.  Justification  being  a  gratui- 
tous thm'g,  and  good  works  the  necessary  results  of  a  li\T.ng 
faith ;  the  efiects,  therefore,  and  not  m  any  degree  the 
meritorious  cause  of  our  salvation. 

This  was  the  principle  which  Luther  uttered,  and  insisted 
upon  with  so  much  energy,  as  the  mark  of  a  standing  or  of 
a  falling  Church ;  it  was  the  leading  principle  of  the  Re- 
formation. 

Centuries  before,  indeed,  Augustine  had  boldly  preached 
it,  from  his  own  experience  ;  but  it  had  become  completely 
overshadowed  by  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church  and  the 
doctrines  of  human  merit.  All  the  Reformed  Churches,  in 
proportion  to  the  life  of  their  piety,  placed  this  as  the  cor- 
ner-stone of  true  Christianity. 

The  Church  of  England  declares,  in  her  eleventh  Article, 


330  ECLIPSE     OF    THE    DOCTRINE. 

"  that  we  are  justified  by  foith  only^  is  a  most  wholesome 
doctrme ;"  and  in  the  twelfth  Article,  that  "  good  works, 
as  \}iiQ  fruits  of  faith, /b^foto  a^i^er  justification,"  "as  a  tree 
is  discerned  "by  its  fi-uits,"  but  "  can  not  put  away  our 
sins ;"  whUe,  in  the  thirteenth  Article,  it  further  urges  that 
"  works  done  before  the  grace  of  Christ  and  the  insph-ation 
of  his  Spu'it  are  not  j^leasant  to  God ;  forasmuch  as  they 
spring  not  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  neither  do  they  make 
men  meet  to  receive  grace."  And  yet  again  in  the  four- 
teenth Article,  that  "  works  of  supererogation  can  not  be 
taught  without  arrogancy  and  impiety." 

This  was  the  doctrine  prevalent  in  England,  Scotland, 
and  throughoiit  the  Continent,  among  the  Reformed 
Churches,  down  to  the  period  of  the  English  Common- 
wealth. Doubtless  many  a  courtly  priest  of  Elizabeth  and 
Charles  I.  believed  in  High  Church  doctrines  of  an  oppos- 
ing character,  but  these  had  to  be  taught  in  such  covered 
up  and  ambiguous  language  that  those  who  held  them 
were  tolerated  only  because  their  sentiments  were  not  dis- 
cerned through  the  drapery  of  language  in  which  they 
were  enveloped. 

From  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  however,  this  great 
doctrine,  though  not  openly  denied,  was  gradually  thrown 
into  the  shade.  In  England  this  neglect  might  have  been 
from  its  supposed  connection  with  Puritanism.  But  in 
Scotland  it  was  the  same,  and  so  on  the  Continent  of  Eu- 
rope. Even  the  Congregational  churches  of  New  England 
felt  its  influence.  A  more  general  cause,  therefore,  must  be 
looked  for,  and  this  is  to  be  found  alone  m  the  unconverted 
memhershi})  introduced  into  all  these  churches  by  infant 
ba2otism. 

About  one  hundred  years  ago,  nothing  can  be  conceived 


ITS    KEVIVAL.  331 

of,  moi'e  dead  than  the  religious  condition  of  the  Chvu-ch 
of  England.  Co^v|)er,  the  poet  of  the  evangelical  faith, 
was  yet  a  law-student,  and  Montgomery  was  not  yet  born. 
Romaine  and  a  few  others  preached  the  doctrine,  we  are 
considering,  in  the  Estahhshed  Church,  and  were  grossly 
lampooned  by  Hogarth  for  doing  so.  Wesley  and  White- 
field  suffered  every  obloquy  and  insult  for  declaring  it.  In 
New  England,  Edwards  was  dismissed  fi-om  his  pastoral 
charge  for  upholding  it,  and  the  Temients,  who  maintamed 
it,  gathered  roimd  them  a  small  and  des2:)ised  minority  in 
the  Presbj-terian  Church.  The  general  revivals  of  religion 
which  took  place,  however,  under  the  preaching  of  such 
men  as  we  have  named,  soon  j^roduced  a  very  different 
state  of  things,  especially  in  this  country.  Large  numbers 
seceded  and  joined  the  Baptists,  and  this  among  other 
causes  perhaps  rendered  the  clergy  of  other  denominations 
more  open  in  their  adoption  of  these  sentiments.  In  Eng- 
land, the  bulk  of  the  Dissenters  were  men  who  held  these 
truths  ;  and  they  were  encoui'aged  by  the  rise  of  the 
Methodists,  no  less  than  by  the  boldness  and  extemporane- 
ous eloquence  of  the  evangehcal  party  in  the  Church  of 
England.  Thus  the  doctrine  m  question  became  exceed- 
ingly popular  with  the  masses  of  all  denommations,  until 
the  check  given  to  it,  m  certain  quarters,  by  the  advance 
of  Puseyism  within  about  twenty  years. 

In  Scotland,  Chalmers  and  men  of  his  stamp  became 
every  where  popular.  In  Geneva  the  flame  of  evangehcal 
religion  was  lighted  iip  through  the  labors  of  a  Haldane  ; 
and  in  the  United  States,  during  the  past  fifty  years,  the 
membership  of  the  evangelical  Churches  adhei'ing  to  this 
faith,  has  multiphed  from  about  four  hundred  thousand 
to    three    miUious    and    a  half,    bemg    an    increase    of 


332  EPISCOPAL    FORMULARIES. 

eightfold,  while  our  population  has  expanded  only  four- 
fold. 

The  point  to  be  considered  just  now  is,  whether  infant 
baptism  is  or  is  not  friendly  and  consistent  with  the  spread 
of  this  great  doctrine,  to  which  all  evangelical  Protestants 
have  professedly  subscribed.  A  moment's  consideration 
will  show  that  it  stands  in  utter  contradiction  to  justifica- 
tion by  faith  alone. 

Infant  baptism  has  generally  been  held  to  involve  a  saving 
change  from  a  state  of  dai'kness  into  one  of  grace,  thus  put- 
tmg  an  act  of  man  in  place  of  the  free  gift  of  God.  In  the 
Church  of  Rome  this  is,  and  has  been  ever,  the  doctrine 
avowed,  and  in  the  Church  of  England,  since  the  Reforma- 
tion, her  formularies  have  retained  the  same  language, 
though  m  contradiction  to  the  spirit  of  her  articles.  Even 
the  final  decision  in  the  celebrated  case  of  Rev.  Mr.  Gor- 
ham,  vs.  the  Bishop  of  Exeter,  within  a  year  or  two,  ad- 
mits that  such  is  the  teaching  of  the  Church  of  England 
formularies,  only  mamtaining  that  it  was  not  so  essential 
a  part  of  the  system  as  to  justify  the  silencing  of  a  mmister 
of  Low-Church  views.  We  know  that  the  evangelical  min- 
isters of  that  denomination  have  been  better  than  their 
forms,  but  what  else  can  common  i^eople  understand  beside 
baptismal  regeneration  from  such  language  as  that  in  which 
God  is  solemnly  besought  "  for  this  infimt  that  he,  coming 
to  thy  holy  baptistu,  may  receive  remission  of  sin  by  spiritual 
regeneration.  Receive  him,  O  Lord  as  Thou  hast  jDrom- 
ised."  Just  before  the  baptism,  it  is  prayed,  "  sanctify  this 
riater  to  the  mystical  wasliing  away  of  sin."  And  imme- 
diately after  baptism  it  is  officially  declared,  "  seeing  how, 
dearly  beloved,  that  this  child  is  regenerate,''^  etc.,  Avhile  the 
Divme  Being  is  solemnly  addi'essed  in  language  such  as  this, 


BAPTISMAL    GRACE.  333 

"We  yield  Thee  hearty  thanks,  most  merciful  Father, 
that  it  hath  pleased  Thee  to  regenerate  this  infant  with 
Thine  Holy  Spirit ;  to  receive  him  for  Thuie  own  chUd, 
by  adoption,  and  to  incorj^orate  him  into  Thy  holy 
Chm-ch." 

A  spiritual  change  and  a  change  of  state  are  here  declared 
to  have  taken  place,  and  sacramental  works  are  put  as  the 
channel  through  which  the  grace  is  asserted  to  have  flowed, 
in  circumstances,  too,  where  the  party  supposed  to  be  justi- 
fied can  not  even  have  manifested  faith.  What  can  more 
directly  cut  at  the  root  of  justification  by  faith  alone  with- 
out works  ?  So  clear,  uniform,  and  certainly  afliecting  the 
eternal  condition  is  this  change  supposed  to  be,  by  the 
Church  of  England,  that  in  case  a  cliild  die  at  any  tune 
after  the  performance  of  this  ceremony  it  may  be  buried  in 
consecrated  gromid.  But  if  not  thus  sprmkled  it  has  no 
such  right,  and  in  1854  a  bishop  refused  to  consecrate  one 
portion  of  a  public  burial-gromid  for  the  members  of  the 
Church  of  England  unless  a  substantial  loall  should  separate 
their  dead  from  those  of  the  Dissenters. 

It  may  be  said  that  all  who  have  practiced  infant  ba^jtism 
have  not  believed  it  to  produce  a  savmg  change  Uke  this. 
True,  but  essentially  infmt  baptism  teaches  that  it  in  some 
way  alters  the  spiritual  condition  of  the  child,  that  it  makes 
the  child  dying  in  infancy  "  more  safe."  Whatever  good 
it  eflects  is  not  of  grace,  but  of  works  ;  works  going  before 
justification,  and  not  the  fruits  of  faith.  To  get  rid  of  this, 
some  of  the  New  England  divines  have  taken  the  ground 
that  the  children  of  parents  who  are  in  the  Cliurch  are  em- 
braced in  the  covenant  hy  hirth  and  therefore  baptized,  thus 
not  admitting  that  baptism  brmgs  them  into  it.  But  in  that 
case  the  baptism  of  their  parents  would  be  as  sufficient  as 


334  INFANT    BAPTISM 

their  faith.  Unquestionably  the  New  England  divines  have 
had  all  sorts  of  theories,  earnestly  deshuig  to  make  infant 
baptism  less  contradictory  to  the  whole  evangelical  system 
than  it  natm-ally  appears.  This  Dr.  Bushnell  has  shown 
while  himself  endeavormg  to  establish  yet  another  view. 
Certam  it  is  that  in  Xew  England,  in  spite  of  all  its  ingen- 
ious theories,  infant  baptism,  through  the  half  covenant  sys- 
tem, had  weU-nigh  subverted  the  whole  evangeUcal  faith, 
especially  around  Boston. 

Dr.  Ide'  says,  "A  Pedobaptist  historian  very  candidly 
mforms  us  that,  at  the  beginnmg  of  the  present  century  all 
the  Congregational  Churches  in  Boston,  with  a  single  ex- 
ception, had  renounced  the  faith  of  the  Pm-itans.  The  Old 
South  stiU  stood  upon  the  platform  of  the  Fathers,  though 
her  pastor  was  a  semi-Arian.  But  when  the  enemy  came  in 
hke  a  flood,  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  lifted  up  a  standard 
against  him.  In  the  year  1803  the  Baptist  Chm-ches  in  the 
city  were  visited  with  a  precious  revival,  in  which  the  Old 
South  shared  to  some  extent.  A  few  of  the  members  of 
this  Church  occasionahy  worshipmg  with  the  Baptists  be- 
came revived  and  established  a  i^rayer-meeting  among 
themselves,  from  which  a  renovating  movement  commenced 
that  has  been  the  origin  of  all  the  orthodox  Congregational 
Churches  ^\dth  which  the  city  of  the  Pilgrims  is  now  blessed. 
Thus  when  infant  baptism  had  put  out  the  fire  on  aU  its 
own  altars,  with  the  exception  of  one  soUtaiy  shrine,  and 
had  caused  it  even  there  to  burn  dim  and  low,  the  flame 
was  kindled  again  from  altars  which  this  unscriptural  rite 
had  never  been  sufi'ered  to  profane.  And  whUe  amid  the 
Egyjitian  darkness  that  settled  over  the  Pedobaptists  in 

'  See  his  edition  of  Infant  Baptism  Part  and  Pillar  of  Popery,  pp. 
95-98. 


AND     U:!fITABIANISM.  335 

Boston,  the  Baptists  iu  tlieir  Goshen,  at  the  North  End, 
thus  walked  in  ixnclovided  hght,  and  showed  themselves 
valiant  for  the  truth ;  so  throughout  the  land,  feeble  and 
scattered  as  they  were,  they  stood  firm  by  the  cause  of 
theu'  Master.  Though  thousands  around  were  casting  off 
the  authority  of  Jesus,  not  a  man  of  them  wavered  m  his 
allegiance.  From  all  then*  places  of  worship  the  ensign  of 
the  cross  streamed  out  undepressed  and  untarnished,  and 
from  all  their  pulpits  the  Godhead  of  Christ  and  the  sover- 
eign efficacy  of  His  blood  were  distinctly  and  earnestly  pro- 
claimed. 

"  To  the  memory  of  these  brave  hearted  men  justice  may 
never  be  done  in  this  world,  but  we  doubt  not,  in  the  great 
day  of  decision,  when  all  events  and  instrumentalities  shall 
be  placed  in  their  true  light,  it  will  appear  that  to  the  Baf)- 
tists  of  Massachusetts  belongs  the  honor  of  having  been 
the  first  to  arrest  the  overflowing  scoiu'ge,  that  they  were 
the  Abdiels  Avho  remained  faithful  in  the  midst  of  revolted 
multitudes,  that  it  Avas  they  who,  when  aU  seemed  lost, 
threw  themselves  single-handed  into  the  van  of  the  battle 
and  held  the  field  against  fearful  odds,  until  behind  their 
scattering  front  the  broken  ranks  of  orthodoxy  were  formed 
anew.    Peace  to  the  ashes  of  these  Christian  heroes." 


336  THE    ESSENTIAL    PKIESTHOOD. 

CHAPTEE   III. 

THE  ESSEXTIAL  PEIESTHOOD  OF  ALL  TEUE  CHEISTIAJSTS. 

Two  of  the  most  deservedly  popular  writers  of  Ecclesi- 
astical history  in  the  present  day,  Neander  and  Merle 
D'Anbigue,  consider  '•'•the  essential  priesthood  of  all  true 
Christians''''  as  one  of  the  most  important  and  origuial  fea- 
tures presented  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church.  In 
his  "  History  of  the  Reformation"  the  latter  of  these  says, 
"  At  the  begmning  the  Church  was  a  society  of  brethren. 
*  *  *  All  Chiistians  were  j^^'iests  of  the  Hving  God  with 
humble  pastors  for  their  guidance.  *  *  *  But  in 
popery  the  holy  and  primitive  equality  of  souls  before  God 
is  lost  sight  of,  Christians  are  divided  into  two  strangely 
vmequal  camps,  on  the  one  side,  a  separate  class  of  priests, 
on  the  other,  timid  flocks  reduced  to  blmd  submission." 
Indeed  he  declares  that  one  of  the  two  most  important  fea- 
tures in  which  Christianity  differed  from  all  the  human  sys- 
tems which  fell  before  it  was,  that  "  whereas  the  priests  of 
Paganism  were  almost  the  gods  of  the  people,  Jesus 
Christ  dethroned  those  livmg  idols,  abohshed  this  proud 
hierarchy — took  from  man  what  man  had  taken  from  God, 
and  re-estabUshed  the  soul  in  direct  communication  with 
the  Divine  fouutam  of  truth,  p-oclaimiug  himself  the  only 
Master  and  Mediator,  One  is  your  Master,  even  Christ,  and 
ye  are  all  brethren." 

Neander  traces  out  the  departure  fi-om  this  principle  as 
one  of  the  first  great  corrnptious — '•'■revolutionizing,''''  in 
fact,  the  Chi'istian  Chm-ch.^     He  speaks  of  "  the  formation 

'  Torrey,  vol,  i.  193-200. 


NEANDER    AXD     EU:N"SEX.  337 

of  a  sacerdotal  caste  iii  the  Christian  Church"  as  "  an  idea 
ahen  to  the  Christian  principle — an  idea  -vdiich  could  not  fail 
to  hrmg  about  a  revolution  of  views,  destined  to  last  for 
ages,  and  even  to  imfold  itself  in  a  ^\ider  circle  from  the 
germ  which  had  once  been  implanted."  "  The  great  prui- 
ciple  of  the  New  Testament,  the  universal  i^riestly  charac- 
ter, grounded  in  that  conunon  and  immediate  relation  of 
all  to  Christ  as  the  source  of  the  divme  life  was  repressed, 
the  idea  interposmg  itself  of  a  })articular  mediatory  j)riest- 
hood  attached  to  a  distinct  order." 

After  this  "  Although  the  idea  of  the  (universal)  priest- 
hood, m  the  purely  evangehcal  sense,  grew  continually 
more  obscure  and  was  thrust  further  mto  the  background, 
in  proportion  as  that  unevangelical  point  of  view  became 
more  and  more  predominant,  yet  it  was  too  deeply  rooted 
in  the  very  essence  of  Christianity  to  be  totally  suppressed." 
"  When  the  idea  of  this  universal  priesthood  reth-ed  into 
the  background,  that  of  the  priestly  consecration  which  aU 
Christians  should  make  of  their  entu'e  hfe  loent  along 
v>ith  it.'''' 

ChevaUer  Bunsen,  in  his  recent  work  on  "  Hippolytus  and 
his  Times,"  insists  with  great  strenuousness  on  the  same 
truths  and  their  \'ital  importance. 

But  a  higher  authority  among  Christians  than  Neander 
or  than  Bunsen  addressed  himself  to  the  members  gener- 
ally of  the  first  Churches  of  Christ,  and  said,  "  Ye  also,  as 
Uvely  stones,  are  built  up  a  spiritual  house,  an  lioly  priest- 
hood to  oifer  up  spiritual  sacrifices,  acceptable  to  God  by 
Jesus  Christ." ' 

AU  true  Christians,  then,  are  by  nature  and  inheritance, 
priests^  and  as  such  it  is  their  highest  privilege  and  imper- 

'  1  Peter,  ii.  5,  9. 
15 


338  DUTIES     OF     THE    PEIESTHOOD. 

ative  duty  to  pray  for  and  teach  all  mankind  the  knowledge 
of  the  true  God, 

That  "svhich  m  this  coiintry  forms  the  basis  of  all  our  lib- 
erties, is  the  acknowledged  fact  of  the  sovereignty  residing 
in  the  people,  and  not  in  the  rulers.  So,  that  which  consti- 
tutes the  liberty  and  excellency  of  true  Christianity  as  op- 
posed to  false,  is  the  essential  priesthood  of  all  true  Chris- 
tians. In  heaven  the  souls  of  the  blessed  continually  do 
praise  the  Redeemer,  not  only  that  He  hath  redeemed  them 
to  God  by  his  blood,  but  hath  made  them  kings  and  pHests 
to  "  God  and  to  the  Lamb." 

We  have  not  m  this  lost  sight  of  the  Christian  ministry 
as  a  distinct  and  divinely  constituted  order.  The  political 
fact  that  the  sovereignty  is  in  the  people,  does  not  obA^iate 
the  necessity  of  executive  officers,  such  as  a  president  and 
magistrates.  Neither,  then,  does  the  universal  priesthood 
of  the  Church  do  away  with  distinct  ministries  and  pastor- 
ships. But  there  is  much  work  in  the  Church  which  never 
can  be  adequately  performed  by  ministers  alone,  or  while 
all  other  Christians  forget  that  they,  too,  have  sacrifices  to 
offer  and  duties  to  accomplish. 

This  whole  subject  has  not  vmfi-equently  been  stated  in 
missionary  and  other  discom-ses,  thus:  "The  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  world  belongs  to  all  churches  and  to  all  Chris- 
tians as  such,  but  all  are  not  able  to  go  out  personally  to 
preach  Christ,  and  these  must  do  their  part  by  contributing 
to  the  support  of  those  who  do  go."  But  such  a  repre- 
sentation even  as  this  foils  utterly  short  of  the  great  truth 
stated  by  St.  Peter.  It  makes  a  loop-hole  for  laziness  in  the 
great  commission  itself  For  many  a  man  might  easily 
afford  to  give  his  hundreds  or  his  thousands,  if  he  could 
thus  buy  himself  off  from  the  duty  of  personal  labors  and 


IJIPERFECTLT     COXCEIVED,  339 

services  for  the  cause  of  Christ.  While  the  Christian,  how- 
ever, as  a  priest,  has  got  to  present  the  sacrifices  and  the 
thank  ofte rings  of  his  gold  and  his  silver  ui^on  the  altar  of 
God,  he  has  far  more  than  this  all  to  do.  He  has  first  of 
all  to  present  himself  a  living  sacrifice.  His  time,  his  tal- 
ents, his  personal  labors,  and  instructions,  must  all  be  flilly 
consecrated  to  the  service  of  his  Master. 

The  greatest  difticulty  is  not  to  find  men  who  are  willing 
to  contribute  for  the  support  of  all  church  and  missionary 
expenses  cheerfully.  There  are  thousands  who  wUl  pay  a 
minister  liberally  to  pray  for  them  and  j^reach  to  them, 
and  to  the  whole  world  besides,  if  they  may  but  sit  still  in 
spiritual  idleness  or  follow  their  wonted  pursuits  from  Mon- 
day morning  to  Saturday  night,  immolested  by  the  claims 
of  religion  and  by  the  duties  of  this  universal  priesthood. 
We  would  not  disparage  the  moralities  and  amiabilities 
manifested  by  such  persons ;  and  it  is,  perhaps,  a  hopeful 
sign  to  see  their  places  filled  in  the  sanctuary  on  the  Sab- 
bath. But  we  can  not  help  asking  whether  those  who  are 
in  Scripture  addressed  as  "  a  holy  priesthood,"  have  not 
got  some  spiritual  sacrifices  to  ofiier  up  themselves,  whether 
it  is  not  their  duty  to  instruct  their  children  at  home  in  the 
ways  of  piety,  and  to  pray  in  their  fainilies,  and  in  the 
prayer-meetings,  and  to  take  part  in  the  Sabbath-school 
and  Bible-classes.  It  is  as  truly  their  prerogative  to  labor 
directly  for  the  conversion  of  souls  to  God  as  it  is  of  those 
who  preach. 

This  has  been  the  great  point  at  issue  between  true  and 
formal  religion  in  all  ages.  That  professed  Christian  who 
does  not  labor  personally,  and  pray  earnestly,  for  the  cor  • 
version  of  mankind,  not  only  lowers  down  the  tone  of  thu 
whole  of  God's  eternal  priesthood  by  an  injurious  example, 


340  PROTESTANT     POPEKT. 

but  injures  his  own  soul  inconceivably  by  the  lack  of  these 
spii'itual  exercises.  One  can  no  more  maintain  the  comforts 
of  piety  in  his  own  soul  without  an  active  and  aggressive 
piety  than  a  man  can  enjoy  health  without  exertion.  And 
it  is  for  this  cause  that  so  many  are  weak  and  sickly  among 
lis,  and  so  many  sleep.  Exercise  on  the  one  hand,  or  disease 
on  the  other,  are  as  much  laws  of  the  spiritual  as  of  the 
physical  world.  Except  a  man  deny  himself,  says  the 
Saviour,  and  take  up  his  cross  daily,  he  can  not  be  my  dis- 
ciple— and  if  not  a  disciple,  not  a  priest. 

Indeed,  the  Christian,  all  the  time  he  is  on  earth,  is,  in 
this  respect,  like  one  recovering  from  a  long  and  dangerous 
disease,  the  exercise  that  refreshed  him  yesterday,  and  in- 
creased his  health,  will  be  too  little  for  him  to-morrow,  and 
he  must  go  on  increasing  his  labors  as  he  increases  strength, 
under  the  penalty  of  a  relapse.  Yea,  there  is  a  joyousness 
about  the  increasing  exertions  of  pious  labor  like  that  of 
one  whose  strength  is  daily  augmenting.  No  man  who  is 
not  labormg  earnestly,  and  laboring  directly^  as  a  spiritual 
priest  Avill  enjoy  the  spiritual  health  and  privileges,  which 
are  his  birthright. 

"VYe  may  call  ourselves  Protestants,  or  by  any  other  name 
we  i^lease,  but  the  restrictions  of  the  priesthood  to  the 
muiistry  is  the  essential  error  of  Popery.  That  system 
makes  the  minister  the  only  jjriest — the  only  one  to  offer 
up  the  spiritual  sacrifices  of  prayer  and  j^raise,  keeping  back 
the  people  from  doing  any  thing.  And  just  as  the  old  ab- 
solutists of  Europe  have  placed  that  sovereignty  m  one 
man,  that  rightly  belongs  to  the  whole  people,  so  it 
has  devolved  that  ^j>?v'es</too(:?  upon  the  minister  alone, 
which  properly  belongs  to  the  whole  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ.     The  welfare  of  all  Christian  Churches  depends  upon 


CONGEEGATIONAL    SINGING.  541 

all  the  professors  of  religion,  not  devolving  it  upon  saints, 
or  priests,  or  ministers,  to  pray  for  tliem,  but  themselves 
praying  and  laboring  all  for  the  conversion  of  a  world  to 
Christ.  Here  lies  the  great  strength  of  true  Christian 
Churches :  not  in  the  labors  of  the  ministry  alone,  but  of 
all  the  f)eoi)le.     This  multiplies  power  a  thousandfold. 

One  hundred  years  ago,  if  we  mistake  not,  the  laity  were 
smgularly  inactive  in  most  Protestant  denominations.  In 
England,  from  the  death  of  Oliver  Cromwell  to  the  rise  of 
Wesley,  the  people  in  almost  all  denominations  seem  to  have 
been  paralyzed.  In  the  State  Church  of  that  country  this 
was  especially  the  case.  Hardly  one  active  reHgious  layman 
in  any  dej)artment  of  Christian  enterprise  appears  in  her 
history,  and  very  few  among  the  Nonconformists,  wliile 
meetuigs  for  prayer  and  religious  conference  appear  to  have 
dwindled  strangely. 

In  Xew  England,  matters  were  in  the  same  state.  Lay 
preaching  seemed  confined,  through  the  coimtry,  to  the  Bap- 
tists, and  in  England,  to  them,  the  Methodists,  and  perhaps 
a  few  Independents. 

The  most  general  and  nearest  approach  to  the  recognition 
of  the  principle  we  are  illustrating  has,  in  various  ages,  been 
the  congregational  singing  of  the  praises  of  God  in  public 
worship.  The  importance  of  this  is  but  little  appreciated 
commonly,  even  in  the  present  day.  Through  it  originally 
the  Jewish  synagogue  made  its  most  powerful  attacks  upon 
Paganism.  Proud  Roman  women  of  the  highest  rank, 
drawn  by  the  majesty  of  those  hymns  there  simg  to  the  great 
Jehovah,  Avere  drawn  in  crowds  from  heathen  temples  to 
poor  little  synagogues  in  the  outskirts  of  Rome  and  other 
cities.  Thus  were  the  foundations  of  Paganism  shaken 
amd  ng  the  nations,  preparatory  to  the  bringmg  in  of  a  new 


342  AUGUSTINE     ON    SINGING. 

dispensation.  But  Christianity  carried  this  part  of  worship 
to  a  far  higher  degree  of  perfection  than  Judaism  had  done, 
for  vnih  Christians  tlie  universal  priesthood  led  each  to 
emulate  the  other  in  sweUing  the  mighty  praises  of  the 
Triime  God,  and  joining  with  all  their  voices  even  where 
they  had  choirs  to  lead.  Hence  it  is  observable  that  in  the 
letter  of  Phny  to  Trajan,  describuig  their  worship  at  the 
begmning  of  the  second  centiuy,  he  speaks  of  them  as  a 
body  of  people  accustomed  to  meet  on  a  particular  day,  and 
"  smg  praises  to  Christ  as  to  God,"  while  he  says  nothmg 
of  their  joreaching. 

Augustme  sj^eaks  with  great  piety  and  self-inspection  in 
regard  to  the  effects  of  this  part  of  Divme  worsliip  on  his 
own  soul. 

"  When  I  remember  the  tears  I  shed  at  the  Psalmody  of 
Thy  Church,  in  the  beginning  of  my  recovered  faith,  and 
how  at  this  time  I  am  moved  not  with  the  singing,  but 
with  the  thmgs  sung,  when  they  are  sung  with  a  clear 
voice  and  modulation  most  suitable,  I  acknowledge  the 
great  use  of  this  institution.  Thus  I  fluctuate  between 
peril  of  pleasure  and  approved  wholesomeness,  inclined  the 
rather  (though  not  as  pronomicing  an  irrevocable  opinion) 
to  approve  of  the  ways  of  singing  in  the  Church,  that  so 
by  the  delight  of  the  ears  the  weaker  minds  may  rise  to 
the  feeling  of  devotion."  * 

In  the  present  day,  whatever  means  best  promote  the 
singmg  of  the  whole  congregation  should  be  used  ;  but  let 
each  Christian  be  assured  that  his  heart  swelling,  and  his 
voice  joining  in  the  sweet  harmonies  and  choruses  of  the 
house  of  God,  is  a  more  acceptable  sacrifice  to  his  Maker 
than  the  smoke  of  incense  and  of  burnt-offering.  It  gives 
'  Confessions,  lib.  10  :  49. 


MISSIOXARY    BOARDS.  343 

forth  tlie  solemn  testimony  of  the  whole  Christian  people 
to  the  truths  that  are  uttered  from  the  desk ;  preaches  them 
over  again  with  such  a  voice  and  testimony  to  the  uncon- 
verted as  will  be  found  among  the  most  powerful  and  elevated 
methods  by  which  the  Church  fulfills  its  universal  priesthood. 
N"o  small  portion  of  this  priesthood  of  the  people  is  per- 
formed through  those  Boards,  Trusteeships,  Societies,  Com- 
mittees, and  agencies  of  voluntary  Societies  to  eifect  eccle- 
siastical objects,  to  which  the  pious  benevolence  of  the 
present  age  has  given  rise.  These  were  almost  unknown  a 
century  ago.  ISTow  the  good  which  is  bemg  eifected  through 
their  means  is  incalculable.  And  it  is  in  proportion  as  these 
operations  become  well  known  to  the  body  of  the  Christian 
people  that  they  elicit  the  prayers,  exertions,  and  contribu- 
tions of  the  whole.  Let  the  Christian  layman,  who  is 
called  to  labor  in  the  fulfillment  of  many  a  thankless  Com- 
mittee ser\dce,  remember  that  m  so  domg  he  is  helping  to 
fulfill  the  duties  of  the  priesthood  at  home,  as  really,  and 
perhaps  quite  as  eflfectually,  as  the  missionary  abroad.  Let 
him  not  begrudge  the  time  which  these  duties  mvolve,  but 
cheerfully  and  prayerfully  discharge  them,  as  engagements 
to  which  he  is  called  by  the  great  Head  of  the  Church. 
Christians  at  home  hold  the  rope,  while  missionaries  go 
do-svii  into  the  wells  and  caverns  below,  to  explore  the 
darkness  of  a  lost  world.  How  many  ministers  suffer  in 
their  health  most  seriously,  and  have  to  neglect  their  own 
more  immediate  duties,  because  men  of  piety  and  intelli- 
gence, from  the  ranks  of  the  business  part  of  the  commu- 
nity, are  not  to  be  found  willing  and  reliable  m  the  perform- 
ance of  these  labors.  The  knowledge  of  the  world  pos- 
sessed by  an  intelligent  and  active  la^^-y^er  or  business  man, 
would,  in  many  cases,  be  far  more  valuable  than  any  other 


344  THE     SABBATH     SCHOOL    SYSTEM!. 

experience  in  the  management  of  that  heavenly  treasure, 
the  merchandise  of  which  is  better  than  the  merchandise 
of  silver  or  of  gold. 

More  directly  still,  the  Sabbath-school,  Bible-class,  and 
Colporteur  systems,  which  have  grown  to  such  importance 
within  the  last  century,  exhibit  iu  many  ways  the  po^ver 
and  utiUties  of  the  miiversal  priesthood  of  the  whole 
Christian  Church.  For  they  all  rest  broadly  and  immedi- 
ately upon  the  people,  bemg  ahnost  entirely  plans  of  lay 
instruction,  or  rather  systems  which  make  each  Christian  a 
priest,  to  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices.  These  are  develop- 
ments the  most  interesting,  the  most  powerful,  and  the 
most  economical,  of  any  of  the  great  movements  of  our 
age,  producing  greater  efforts  for  good  upon  the  national 
mind,  and  upon  the  great  heart  of  the  rising  generation 
throughout  the  world. 

In  the  Sabbath-school  we  find  a  system  that  is  self-sus- 
taining. It  requu-es  little  or  no  money.  Wherever  there 
is  a  Church,  and  often  wRere  there  is  none,  some  individu- 
als possess  more  piety,  knowledge,  and  aj)titude  to  teach 
than  others.  Some  are  old  and  have  experience,  others  are 
young  and  need  instruction.  The  Sabbath-school  rests 
upon  and  illustrates  this  great  principle,  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  all  those  who  know  more  freely  to  impart  to  those  who 
know  less.  The  very  effort  to  teach,  the  preparation,  the 
study  of  the  Scrijjture,  and  j^rayer,  will  do  any  Christian 
more  good  than  listening  to  a  hundred  sermons. 

Probably,  however,  the  prayer  and  conference  meetings 
exhibit  most  smiply  and  directly  the  universal  priesthood 
of  the  Churches  of  Christ.  For  the  power  of  these  meet- 
ings consists  in  bringing  together  the  testmiony  of  so 
many  witnesses  to  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus ;  and  through 


BAPTIST    CHURCH    GOVERNMENT.  345 

the  prayers  they  offer,  the  exhortations  of  men  m  all  the 
various  and  different  walks  of  life,  the  melodies  in  which 
they  imite — all  who  attend  are  vSiirrounded,  as  it  were,  on 
every  side  with  an  atmosphere  of  piety  and  holuiess. 

For  an  instance  of  still  other  kinds  of  useful  priestly 
labors,  let  any  one  turn  to  the  life  of  Harlan  Page  or  of 
Howard.  It  is  through  duties  such  as  all  of  these,  not  by 
pastors  alone,  but  by  all  the  people,  that  the  Church  of 
Christ  puts  on  her  beautiful  garments,  shakes  herself  from 
the  dust  and  sloth  of  centuries,  and  comes  forth  arrayed  in 
all  the  beauty  of  the  priestly  robes  conferred  by  Christ. 

In  natixre,  the  elements,  when  most  silent,  are  most  po- 
tential ;  and  in  grace  these  quiet,  ever-workmg,  wide-spread 
influences  are  the  great  hope  of  evangehcal  religion  for 
ages  yet  in  the  future.  It  has  not  been  by  set  sermons 
against  Popery  that  Roman  CathoUcs  have  been  converted 
in  this  coimtry,  and  yet  by  personal  Christian  influence  and 
superior  weight  of  character  more  than  two  millions  have 
been  drawn  from  this  soul-destroying  system,  in  the  United 
States,  within  the  last  half-century,  and  the  deadliest 
wound  been  inflicted  on  the  head  of  the  beast,  that  Anti- 
christ has  received  since  the  Reformation.  This  spirit, 
however  variously  manifested,  is  in  reaUty  one.  It  is  the 
power  of  the  2^}'^€sthood  residing  in  every  member  of  the 
whole  Church.  As  it  is  cherished  or  neglected,  every  other 
gift  and  grace  fluctuates. 

But,  without  fear  of  contradiction,  the  Baptists  may 
claim  that  their  principles  recognize  tliis  power  beyond  any 
other  Christian  denomination. 

There  are  three  of  then'  essential  and  characteristic  fea- 
tures which  eminently  lead  to  this  result.  First,  The  sim- 
plicity of  their  form  of  church  government.,  in  which  there 

15* 


346  SPIRITUAL   CHURCH    MEMBERSHIP. 

is  nothing  done  that  is  not  subject  to  the  will  of  the  whole 
Church.  Neither  the  vote  of  a  non-jirofessing  or  uncon- 
verted laity,  nor  the  single  voice  of  a  dictatorial  bishoj)  can 
lord  it  over  God's  heritage,  or  fetter  the  priesthood  and  the 
peer-age  (/,  e.,  the  equality)  of  all  the  true  sons  of  God,  in 
their  Father's  house.  The  j)astor  is  the  presiding  officer, 
but  not  the  priest,  of  the  Christian  Church.  He  can  not 
overrule  its  voice  which  is  now,  with  the  Baptists,  as  an- 
ciently with  all,  supreme.  Xor  can  one  Church  overrule 
another,  for  each  is  independent.  They  consult  and  coun- 
sel as  brethren,  but  can  not  command  or  dictate.  Now,  as 
we  have  sho■\\^l  before,  no  other  denomination  in  this  coun- 
try can,  upon  the  scale  of  a  himdi'ed  years,  claim  the  whole 
of  this  as  true  of  them. 

Secondly,  This  would,  however,  be  unpossible  or  disas- 
trous if  it  were  not  for  the  spiritual  character  of  the  metn- 
hership  of  Baptist  Churches.  If  the  members  were  re- 
ceived by  birthright  as  the  Quakers  are,  or  by  infant  bap- 
tism upon  the  hoj^e  and  presumption  that  they  would  grow 
up  Christians — if  upon  any  other  basis  than  that  of  a  credi- 
ble experience  of  a  work  of  grace  sanctifying  their  hearts 
such  as  that  upon  which  alone  baptism  is  proj)erly  adminis- 
tered, the  membership  could  not  be  trusted  with  such  pow- 
ers. The  holy  priesthood  being  mixed  up  with  worldly 
masses  would  not  be  discernable  nor  capable  of  acting  with 
efficiency.  Hence  just  in  proportion  as  other  denominations 
have  nullified  their  infant  baptism  and  become  more  sphit- 
ual  in  their  membership,  just  in  proportion  as  they  have 
come  round  to  what  Dr.  BushneU  rightly  terms  "  the  Bap- 
tist theory  of  Church  membershijj"  have  they  also  claimed 
and  exercised  the  powers  of  this  universal  priesthood. 

Third,  Again  Baptists  test  aU  theii'  rehgion  by  the  oh- 


BAPTISTS  a:n'd  political  libeety.  347 

vious  meaning  of  the  JVew  Tesfamenf,  \'italized  only  by  a 
personal  experience  of  its  divine  truths,  just  as  the  blood 
carries  life  into  every  part  vitalized  only  by  the  oxygen 
gas  Ave  mhale.  This  simplicity  gives  them  great  advantage 
in  pouit  of  efficiency  and  power.  Engrossed  as  most  i:)er- 
8ons  are  in  other  pursuits,  and  without  theological  educa- 
tion, any  compUcated  system  reliant  on  studies  beyond  their 
research  must  make  them  dependent  upon  authorities  and 
teachers,  preventmg  the  full  measure  of  that  boldness  and 
confidence  so  essential  to  success,  but  which  the  clear  and 
conscientious  obedience  to  all  known  truth  ever  inspires. 
This  gives  simplicity  of  plan  and  unity  of  result  in  all  es- 
sential pi'inciples,  with  the  largest  liberty  and  variety  of 
methods  in  meeting  compUcated  and  various  details.  In 
exact  proportion  as  Christian  denominations  walk  by  these 
rules,  will  be  their  comprehensiveness  and  their  usefulness, 
their  orthodoxy  at  heart  and  the  catholicity  of  their  charity. 


CHAPTEE    lY. 

baptist   PEi:JfCIPLES    FAVORABLE    TO    POLITICAL   LIBERTT, 

Bepoke  closing  this  Avork  it  will  be  appropriate  to  trace 
the  progress  during  the  past  century  of  Baptist  Principles 
ii  connection  with  those  of  Free  Government. 

Dr.  Arnold  well  remarked  that  after  forty,  no  Avise  man 
A\  as  so  anxious  for  the  people  to  acquire  more  liberty  as  to 
be  fitted  for  more.  In  proportion  as  there  is  preparedness 
for  freedom,  liberty  will  soon  follow  inevitably,  and  Avhere 
that  is  absent  it  can  not  last  if  acquired.    Hence  the  natural 


348  PHZSICAL,     INTELLECTUAL,     AND 

and  necessary  connection  between  true  religion  and  civil 
liberty.  It  and  it  alone  prepares  man  for  freedom,  "  If 
the  Son  shall  make  you  free,"  said  the  Saviour,  "  ye  shall 
be  free  indeed."  And  so  far  free  government  must  rest 
essentially  upon  a  religious  basis.  Freedom  without  Gov- 
ernment is  anarchy,  as  mere  government  without  freedom 
is  tyranny.  But  in  pure  religion  we  find  perfect  freedom 
consistuig  with  perfect  government,  the  internal  nature  of 
man  harmonized  with  his  external  relations.  Here,  there- 
fore, is  the  type  of  all  free  government  among  men.  And 
hence  there  is  no  truth  so  well  illustrated  by  all  history,  es- 
pecially modern  history,  as  this,  that  every  successful  strug- 
gle for  religious  freedom  has  been  followed  either  by  a  cor- 
responding political  struggle,  or  else  by  a  large  conceded 
increase  of  civil  liberty. 

We  are  at  times  liable  to  look  upon  the  Church  of  Christ 
as  a  merely  spiritual  institution,  one  so  exclusively  intended 
to  promote  man's  eternal  interests  that  we  lose  sight  of  its 
importance  to  his  temporal  welfxre.  Each  nation  has  ever 
founded  its  hopes  on  some  peculiar  excellence  belonging  to 
its  institutions.  But  for  permanence  no  principle  of  cohe- 
rence has  been  found  at  all  conijoarable  to  that  of  true  re- 
hgion.  Some  nations  have  prided  themselves  u2:)on  2^hysiGdl 
poioer  for  success,  but  time  demonstrates  that  alone  is  not 
enough  to  preserve  it  from  decay.  Others  have  relied  on 
intellectual  greatness  only.  Voltaire  announced  this  to  the 
world  as  the  sum  of  his  philosophy.  "  Error  and  ignorance 
are  the  sole  causes  of  the  misfortunes  of  the  human  race." 
The  French  Revolution  was  wi'ought  out  on  the  idea  that 
nothing  Init  knowledge  was  requisite  to  make  man  free  and 
happy.  But  intellectual  cultivation  was  there  proA'ed  as  it 
has  been  by  the  history  of  the  whole  world,  to  be  but  too 


MOKAL     SOURCES     OF     POWER.  349 

cousistent  with  moral  depravation  ;  and  thus  the  spread  of 
knowledge  became  but  the  diifusiou  of  corruption.  Enough 
this  to  show  that  knowledge  alone,  or  even  when  united  Avith 
the  highest  bravery  and  skill  in  arms,  is  not  enough  to  pre- 
serve a  nation's  prosperity.  Bacon  says,  "  in  the  infancy  of 
a  State  arms  prevail,  in  its  maturity  arms  and  arts  for  a 
short  season,  in  its  declme  commerce  and  the  mechanic 
arts." 

One  source  of  national  strength  alone  remains  to  be  no- 
ticed. It  is  moral  and  religions  power.  The  history  of  the 
Jews  with  their  theocratic  government  was  an  illustration 
of  this.  The  motto  of  their  power  was  "  righteousness  ex- 
alteth  a  nation."  Though  a  small  people,  though  naturally 
narrow-minded,  tliough  not  warhke  in  disj^osition  and 
policy  after  arriving  in  Palestine,  they  flourished  in  propor- 
tion as  they  adhered  to  the  prmciple  on  wHch  then*  strength 
was  founded,  and  only  perished  when  they  had  utterly  lost 
all  true  religion,  and  turned  their  backs  on  faith  in  the  pur- 
suit of  ritualism. 

In  the  institutions  of  this  country,  all  of  the  three  ele- 
ments named,  physical,  mental,  and  moral  })ower  have  been 
in  a  smgular  manner  united  and  balanced  by  being  left  free. 
The  hardy  exercise  of  clearing  the  forests  has  increased  the 
average  stature  of  the  men  more  than  an  inch  above  that  of 
the  parent  stock.  The  exertions  necessary  to  subdue  the 
Indians  and  wild  beasts,  have  given  them  courage  in  the 
use  of  arms,  and  ready  habits  of  warfire.  Free  schools, 
colleges,  and  newspapers,  have  carried  forward  the  mtellect 
of  the  masses  proportionabljr. 

Now,  in  accounting  for  the  prosperity  of  this  country, 
some  will  select  the  strength  and  courage  of  the  people, 
the  extensive  forests  and  fields  for  them  to  spread  them- 


350  THE     KINGDOM     OF     CHRIST. 

selves  in,  and  attribute  to  that  source  all  its  success. 
Others  will  select  the  spread  of  knowledge  and  newspapers, 
and  attribute  every  thuig  to  that.  We  fear,  then,  that  in 
the  midst  of  aU  this,  one,  and  the  chief  element  of  the 
prosperity  of  this  country,  is  in  danger  of  being  overlooked, 
i.  e.,  the  moral  and  religious  principles  of  its  forefathers. 
,  That  sentiment  which  David  put  into  the  mouth  of  Israel 
three  thousand  years  ago,  needs  often  to  be  repeated — 
"  Some  trust  in  chariots,  and  some  in  horses,  but  we  will 
trust  in  the  name  of  our  God."  It  may  be  well  to  show 
the  power  of  pure  Christianity  in  7'aising  a  nation  to 
greatness,  and  securing  its  happiness. 

Of  all  the  mischievous  alliances  that  man  ever  conceived, 
the  union  of  Church  and  State  has  been  the  most  prolific  of 
ill  consequences  to  both.  There  is,  however,  no  error  but 
some  truth  lies  at  the  bottom  of  it,  and  while  the  imion  of 
the  Church  to  the  State  is  a  sad  error,  the  adherence  of 
a  nation  to  great  rehgious  princij>les  is  the  principal  source 
of  its  strength. 

National  governments  have  generally  undertaken  to  rule 
men  just  m  the  reverse  way  from  the  Church,  and  miserable 
work  have  they  made  of  it.  They  have  governed  mainly 
by  force,  by  armies,  by  police,  and  by  stringent  laws,  until 
society  in  the  old  world  "UTithes  in  its  agony,  and  is  all 
ready  to  drop  to  pieces. 

The  Church  of  Christ  imdertakes  to  govern  man  by  love, 
by  conscience,  by  exhibiting  wjiat  is  right  and  true,  by  con- 
ferrmg  its  pri^dleges  only  on  the  good — and  it  flourishes  and 
increases.  Napoleon,  speaking  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ, 
said,  "  We  rest  the  creations  of  our  genius  upon  force,  Jesus 
Christ  alone  founded  his  empire  upon  love,  and  at  this  mo- 
ment millions  of  men  would  die  for  hkn." 


ITS    POWER.  351 

There  is  not  a  Christian  but  must  have  felt  the  strange 
contrast  which  there  is  between  the  kingdom,  of  Christ  and 
most  other  kingdoms  that  have  yet  seen  the  light  of  the 
sun.  Its  objects  seem  so  different,  and  its  methods  so  dif- 
ferent, while  yet  it  accomplishes  all  the  great  ends,  even  the 
earthly  ends  of  government  better  than  any  other  mstitu- 
tion.  It  does  more  to  assist  men  and  put  ^nithin  their  reach 
the  best  means  of  promotmg  their  happiness,  prosperity, 
and  protection. 

Go  into  some  neighborhood  where  vice  most  prevails, 
and  social  order  is  least  preserved,  where  all  that  makes  a 
community  vii'tuoits,  mdustrious,  and  happy,  is  set  the  most 
comjjletely  at  defiance.  Go  with  laws,  with  constables, 
with  magistrates,  and  soldiers,  and  can  you  rectify  the  dis- 
orders of  that  community  as  you  can  by  plantmg  a  Church 
of  Christ,  opening  the  doors  of  a  house  of  worship,  training 
the  yoimg  m  Sabbath-schools,  and  exhortmg  the  old  to 
reformation  and  penitence?  Gather  the  community  to- 
gether to  adore  their  Creator  and  rej^ent  of  their  sins,  form 
the  Christians  into  a  holy  brotherhood,  and  it  will  soon  ai> 
pear  that  there  is  no  power  on  earth  equal  to  it.  And  yet 
it  is  a  power  of  which  the  nations  of  mankind  have  very 
little  real  conception. 

If  ever  there  was  a  time  when  it  was  paljDable  to  all  man- 
kind that  there  is  something  radically  wrong  and  rotten  at 
the  root  of  most  of  the  old  systems  of  government,  tliis  is 
the  time.  Like  a  row  of  dominoes  which  children  set  on 
end,  and  make  one  fall  against  another  till  the  whole  drop, 
so  are  most  of  the  kingdoms  of  Europe  and  Asia  tottermg, 
jostling,  and  crashing  against  each  other  at  this  time.  From 
the  only  uuagitated  spot,  one  may  say,  in  the  civilized  world, 
we  in  this  country  calmly  survey  tliis  state  of  things  without 


352  ORIGIN     OF     SELF-GOVERNMENT 

cause  of  alarm,  if  we  can  but  adhere  only  to  the  princiiiles 
on  which  the  nation  was  constituted. 

Now,  it  can  easily  be  shown  that  it  is  religion — the  re- 
ligion of  Christ  that  has  given  to  this  country  the  germ  of 
her  present  happiness  and  institutions,  makmg  her  political 
importance  what  it  is.  What  was  Xew  England  originally 
but  a  live  coal  shot  out  from  the  volcano  of  the  Reformation  ? 
It  was  the  livmg  embodiment  of  principles  struck  out  in  the 
heat  and  fires  of  those  tremendous  throes  of  religious  opinion 
wdiich  agitated  England  from  Henry  VIII.  to  Charles  II. 
Rights  of  conscience  which  seemed  visionary  and  impractic- 
able m  the  Old  World  were  here  tested  and  proved  not  un- 
practicable  for  the  ISTew.  The  basis  of  the  modem  civil 
liberties  of  this  coimtry  (and  of  Europe)  may  all  be  traced 
back  to  speculations  upon  reUgious  liberty  and  the  rights  of 
conscience.  The  Declaration  of  Indei^endence  was  but  the 
public  announcement  of  a  thmg,  the  germ  of  which  had 
existed  long  before.  The  American  principles  of  self-gov- 
ernment in  the  State  origmated  in  self-government  in  the 
Church.  The  idea  of  choosing  officers  and  settling  every 
thing  peaceably  by  the  vote  of  the  majority,  was  evidently 
derived,  in  this  country,  from  the  custom  of  thus  electing 
Chxirch  officers,  and  of  thus  arranging  all  religious  matters, 
in  Holland.  The  Church  without  a  prelate  went  before  the 
State  without  a  king.  The  germ  and  basis  of  those  political 
institutions  which  here  have  produced  so  much  happmess 
may  be  found  m  the  Church  and  town  meetings  of  the  New 
England  colonies  long  enough  prior  to  the  Revolution. 

In  fact,  the  history  of  self-government  in  America  may  be 
traced  back  to  its  origin,  in  1620,  when  the  voyagers  of  the 
May  Flower  on  landing,  finding  themselves  out  of  the 
colony  of  Virginia,  signed  a  paper,  mutually  promisuig  to 


IN    AMERICA.  853 

submit  to  all  such  "just  and  equal  laws  and  ordinances" 
as  should  from  time  to  time  he  thought  most  convenient 
for  the  common  good.' 

What  alone  were  wanting  in  Massachusetts — full  religious 
liberty,  safe  guarantees  for  the  rights  of  the  minority 
against  the  tyranny  of  the  majority,  and  separation  of  Church 
and  State,  were  supplied  by  Roger  Williams,  drawing  his 
idea  of  a  Church  from  the  N"ew  Testament  alone.  It  was 
the  reserved  rights  of  each,  first  completely  conceived  and 
struggled  for  in  this  country  by  Roger  Williams,  that  be- 
came the  foundation  of  the  perfect  civil  liberties  and  indi- 
vidual rights  secured  to  each  hi  this  land. 

In  1638,  a  solemn  covenant  was,  hi  like  manner,  signed 
by  Roger  Williams  and  his  associates  to  submit  to  the 
orders  of  "the  major  part,"  but  "  in  civil  thmgs  owTy."'' 
The  Charter  from  Khig  Charles,  which  he  afterward  secured, 
was  obtained  chiefly  to  protect  themselves  from  the  en- 
croachments of  Massachusetts. 

We  have  only  to  read  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  see 
the  model  of  this  Republic  of  Independent  States  in  those 
spiritual  communities  scattered  here  and  there  over  Pales- 
tine, and  extending  through  Asia  Minor  and  Egypt,  until 
they  filled  the  whole  Roman  empire.  Those  Churches  so 
dependent  ujion  Christ,  yet  so  mdeijendent  of  the  whole 
world  beside,  peaceably  choosing  then*  own  ofiicers,  and 
managing  their  own  afiliirs,  counselmg  like  brothers,  and 
fraternizmg  without  interfering  with  each  other's  independ- 
ence and  reserved  rights ;  those  Churches  of  Christ  and  his 
Apostles  gave  to  the  world  the  idea  of  that  new  kind  of 
civil  government  which  now  stands  in  such  a  happy  contrast 
to  the  moldering  thrones  of  the  Old  World. 

>  Hildreth,  vol.  i.  p.  159.  8  HUdreth,  vol  i.  p.  256. 


354  ORIGIN   OF 

The  right  of  the  majority  to  govern,  was  in  New  Eng- 
land, taught  the  State  by  all  the  Congregational  Churches 
in  common.  But  the  reserved  rights  of  the  mhiority  on 
all  matters  about  which  there  could  be  conscientious 
scruples  were  first  declared  to  this  Continent  by  the  Bap- 
tist colony  of  Rhode  Island.  As  a  smgular  illustration 
of  the  whole  of  this,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the 
Charter,  drawn  up  on  pruiciples  suggested  by  Roger  Wil- 
hams,  survived  the  Revolution  of  1776,.  and  remained  the 
Constitution  of  that  State  imtil  mthm  a  very  recent  period. 
There  is  no  other  civilized  government  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  that  changed  so  little  hi  its  constitution  m  those  two 
hundred  years,  while  yet  altermg  so  largely  and  so  pros- 
perously m  all  outward  circumstances. 

If  from  the  mtellectual  origin  we  turn  now  to  the  prac- 
tical development  of  liberty,  it  was  in  Virgmia  that  the 
resolutions  of  1765,  against  the  Stam^i  Act,  carried  through 
by  Patrick  Henry,  brought  to  a  crisis  the  great  struggle 
for  liberty.  And  it  is  the  history  of  liberal  views,  m  the 
most  originally  aristocratic  of  the  colonies,  which  will  best 
illustrate  the  bearing  of  religious  opinions  on  the  civil  con- 
stitution of  a  peoplo. 

In  1745  a  company  of  New  England  Baptists  settled  in 
Virgmia,  from  whose  extraordinary  zeal  nearly  the  whole 
of  the  Baptists  of  the  South  and  South-west,  now  num- 
bermg  more  than  half  a  million  of  communicants,  have 
since  sprung.  They  first  undermined  the  union  of  Church 
and  State  in  Virginia,  A  religious  revolution  precisely  on 
the  same  principles  as  the  political  one  which  followed,  took 
place  when  Patrick  Henry  overthrew  the  established  clergy 
in  the  parson's  cause.  It  was  this  success  that  gave  him 
weight  and  enabled  him  to  unite  the  aristocracy  with  the 


AMERICAN     INDEPENDENCE.  355 

masses  of  the  peo})le  (two  thirds  of  whom  were  now  dis- 
senters), in  the  revohitionary  resohitious  against  the  Stamp 
Act.  He  turned  the  popular  feeluig  of  the  State  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  way  agamst  British  interference  with  pohti- 
cal  liberty  in  the  latter  case,  as  agamst  her  infringement 
ujioii  religious  liberty  in  the  former. 

The  carrying  of  those  resolutions  against  the  Stamp  Act 
was  the  turning  pomt  of  the  question  of  revolution,  and  no 
one  could  or  would  have  fought  that  through  but  the  man 
who  had  already  led  on  successfully  the  former  revolution- 
ary struggle.^  But  for  his  popularity  with  the  people,  both 
his  resolutions  and  himself  would  have  shared  a  very  dif- 
ferent fxte.  It  was  what  he  had  gamed  in  the  religious 
contest  that  enabled  hun  to  hold  the  aristocracy  of  Vir- 
ginia to  the  cause  of  the  people ;  and  this  united  the  whole 
weight  and  uifluence  of  that  colony,  then  the  largest  from 
the  outset,  in  the  cause  of  tlie  Revolution.  But  for  all 
these  causes  combining,  the  Stamp  Act  would  have^been 
submitted  to.  And  all  through  the  early  part  of  that 
struggle,  it  was  Patrick  Henry's  devotion  to  religious 
liberty  that  drew  round  him  no  unmiportant  measure  of 
his  personal  pop\;larity  and  influence.  He  became  the  open 
and  voluntary  legal  defender  of  the  Baptists,  and  from  the 
very  first,  as  all  historians  agree,  the  Baptists,  to  a  man, 
united  in  espousiag  the  cause  of  the  Revolution.  They 
Avere  of  all  classes  foremost  in  their  labors  and  sufferings 
for  its  achievement.  Throughout  the  whole  country  from 
Georgia  to  Massachusetts,  as  Backus''  and  others  have 
shown,  they  were  every  where  publicly  committed  to  the 
cause  beyond  any  other  religious  denomination,  and  as  such 
their  houses  of  worship  were  defaced  or  destroyed,  and  their 
'  See  ante,  p.  51.  2  Backus,  ch.  xi.  p.  196. 


356  JEFFERSON 

congregations  subjected  to  unusual  persecutions  'svherever 
the  British  forces  came.  Tlieir  sons  joined  the  army,  and 
their  ministers  acted  as  cliaphiins  to  the  troops. 

Jefferson  in  Vii'ginia  did  more  tlian  most  others  to  give 
a  scientific  and  formal  cast  to  the  prmciples  of  hberty 
in  Yirgmia,  and  thus  largely  to  the  United  States ;  and  it 
is  not  unimportant  to  show  how  he  obtained  some  of  his 
ideas.  From  the  experiments  and  falliwes  of  the  ancient 
Greek  Repubhcs  he  unquestionably  got  many  of  the  checks 
and  balances  of  his  opmions.  But  he,  no  less  than  Patrick 
Henry,  got  his  first  clear  conceptions  of  a  free  civil  consti- 
tution from  observation  of  the  results  of  freedom  of  con- 
science. Religious  government  as  exhibited  by  Baptist 
Churches  taught  him  the  form  of  government  best  suited 
to  the  United  States.  There  was  a  small  Baptist  Church 
which  held  its  monthly  meetings  for  business  at  a  short  dis- 
tance from  Mr.  Jefferson's  house,  eight  or  ten  years  before 
the  American  Revolution.  Mr.  Jefferson  attended  these 
meetings  for  several  months  in  succession.  The  pastor  on 
one  occasion  asked  him  how  he  was  pleased  with  their 
Church  government  ?  Mr.  Jefferson  repUed  that  it  struck 
him  with  great  force,  and  had  interested  him  much,  that  he 
considered  it  the  only  form  of  true  democracy  then  exist- 
ing in  the  worlds  and  had  concluded  that  it  would  be  the 
best  plan  of  government  for  the  American  colonies.  Tliis 
was  several  years  before  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
This  practical  exhibition  of  religious  liberty  and  equality 
would  seem  then  to  have  operated  on  Mr.  Jefferson's  mind 
no  little  in  formmg  those  principles  of  civil  freedom  and 
government  which  he  afterward  so  ably  developed  and  ad- 
vocated. 

There  has  been  a  question  raised  whether  it  was  not  a 


FREE     GOVERNMENT  357 

Presbyterian  Church  in  the  neighborhood,  that  Jefferson 
attended  for  this  purpose.  Though  a  matter  of  no  great 
consequence,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  remark  that  a  gen- 
tleman of  the  highest  respectability,  and  well  known  in 
North  Carolina,  told  the  writer  that  his  attention  havmg 
been  called  to  the  statement,  and  he  knowing  that  the 
venerable  Mrs.  Madison  had  some  recollections  on  the  sub- 
ject, asked  her  m  regard  to  them.  She  expressed  a  distinct 
remembrance  of  Mr.  Jeflerson  si^eaking  on  the  subject,  and 
always  declaring  that  it  was  a  Baptist  Church  from  which 
these  views  were  gathered.  Indeed  a  moment's  reflection 
would  show  that  it  could  hardly  have  been  any  other.  For 
in  no  Presbyterian  Church  is  the  business  ever  transacted 
in  the  presence  of  those  who  are  not  members,  it  being  all 
conducted  by  "  the  session,"  as  it  is  called,  consistmg  only 
of  the  officers  of  the  Church  and  uniformly  in  private. 

The  conception,  the  faith  that  calls  tilings  into  existence, 
the  confidence  of  the  practicability  of  a  free  government^ 
whose  ultimate  earthly  power  is  vested  in  the  masses  of  the 
community — this  idea  was  plainly  obtained  by  Jefferson 
himself,  from  a  small  Baptist  Church,  meeting  month  after 
month  to  govern  itself  by  the  laws  of  the  New  Testament, 
in  his  own  neighborhood.  It  was  certainly  the  Baptist 
Churches  of  this  country  w^ho  were  the  first  to  suggest  and 
to  maintain  those  ideas  of  religious  hberty,  and  of  conse- 
quent lunitations  upon  the  power  of  the  majority  to  inter- 
fere with  the  rights  of  tlie  minority,  which  form  some  of 
the  most  sacred  features  of  American  liberty.' 

It  was  thus,  in  more  general  terms,  the  Church  that  gave 
men  m  this  country  a  faith  in  self-government,  and  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  only  way  m  which  it  could  be  maintained — a 
1  See  ante,  p.  56. 


358  REVOLUTIONS     UNSUCCESSFUL 

faith  and  a  knowledge  that  have  not  taken  root  in  Europe, 
but  which,  are  now  at  work  like  leaven,  and  must  work 
untU  the  happiness  of  nations  has  grown  out  of  it. 

The  American  Revolution,  howcA^er,  was  but  the  firing  of 
a  signal  gun  for  a  campaign  of  liberty  in  Europe,  of  which  no 
mortal  can  even  yet  begin  to  see  the  end.  The  first  French 
Revolution  was  the  immediate  result ;  an  attempt  to  imi- 
tate m  France  what  had  been  accomplished  in  America. 
But  there  was  this  important  distinction  at  the  outset, 
which  made  all  the  diflierence  in  its  immediate  results — the 
people  had  never  been  used  to  self-government  in  religion, 
and  therefore  were  unprepared  for  it  in  politics.  They  had 
particularly  never  received  the  ideas  of  Roger  WUliams,  as 
to  the  sacredness  of  conscience,  and  the  reserved  rights  of 
the  soul.  Hence  they  were  imprepared  to  conceive  of  true 
political  liberty,  or  the  constitutional  rights  of  each  man 
reserved  to  him  against  the  anarchical  oppression  of  a  ma- 
jority. They  had  no  pure  religion,  and  therefore  could 
have  no  true  liberty.  They  had  infidel  philosophy  on  one 
hand,  and  Papal  superstition  on  the  other ;  the  Missal  in- 
stead of  the  Bible,  and  the  confessional  in  the  place  of 
family  worship,  an  unscrupulous  Jesuitical  priesthood  instead 
of  a  pure  and  Gospel  Church. 

It  is  not  in  every  page  of  histary  that  this  lesson  can  be 
so  clearly  and  demonstrably  traced  out,  as  just  here.  In 
ordinary  times,  and  among  common  men,  the  secret  forces 
which  the  religion  of  a  land  is  ever  exerting,  are  hardly 
perceptible ;  just  as  the  constant  vitalizing  influence  of  elec- 
tricity momentarily  at  work  is  not  usually  perceived,  but 
only  the  occasional  thunder-cloixd.  Does  a  land  prosper  ? 
men  bless  the  wisdom  of  their  OAvm  schemes,  their  educa^ 
tion,  their  laws,  their  enterprise,  their  liberties,  all  these 


"WITHOUT     KELIGIOJiT.  359 

secondary  causes  are  brought  forth  m  turn,  and  worshijjed, 
just  as  of  old  they  cried  out  by  the  space  of  three  hours, 
"  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians !"  while  yet  the  First 
cause,  the  cause  of  all  other  causes  of  prosperity,  is  forgotten. 

But  what  are  any  of  these  without  the  vitalizing  agency 
of  a  pure  and  simple  religion  to  regulate  them  and  give 
them  sufficiency  ?  What  is  education?  Knowledge  truly 
s  power,  but  power  of  evil  to  the  bad ;  of  good  only  to  the 
good.  Who  would  "n^sh  to  see  every  tyrant  become  a 
giant,  and  a  razor  in  the  hands  of  every  madman  ?  Yet  such 
is  knowledge  to  a  people  without  virtue  and  piety.  What 
can  law  eifect  ?  It  requires  good  men  to  make  good  laws, 
a  good  community  to  support  them,  and  a  good  heart  to 
love  them.  What  is  liberty  itself  with  all  its  sweets,  to  the 
reckless  and  unprincipled  ?  The  veriest  bubble  that  ever 
child  blew.  Indeed  those  arrangements  which  are  best,  so 
long  as  a  majority  remain  on  the  side  of  virtue,  are  worst 
where,  as  in  the  city  of  Paris,  the  majority  become  corrupt. 
Not  one,  nor  all  tlimgs  beside  can  make  a  land  either  great 
or  happy.  Li^dng  religion  is  the  real  source  of  this  nation's 
jH'osperity — that  only  can  make  its  truly  wise  and  philo- 
sophical arrangements  work  successfully.  We  hazard 
nothing  m  sajdng  that  this  country  owes  more  to  the  prayers 
and  the  piety  of  its  ancestry,  than  it  does  even  to  their 
valor  and  their  "s^-isdom,  great  as  they  were.  And  each  de- 
nomination and  each  Christian,  in  proportion  as  they  con- 
tribute to  a  pure  reUgion,  make  the  most  valuable  offering 
to  civil  liberty. 

As  in  prosperity  men  exult  in  the  wisdom  of  their  own 
schemes,  instead  of  glorying  in  the  only  wise  God,  so  in 
adversity  they  can  see  no  cause  for  the  disruptions  of  civil 
commotions,  or  the  sudden  panics  and  fluctuations  of  com- 


360  FIRST    FREXCH    REVOLUTION. 

merce,  beyond  excess  of  trade,  fictitious  capital,  the  con- 
duct of  the  banks,  or  the  pohtical  mismanagement  of  other 
nations.  But  the  man  of  piety  perceives  a  cause  far  above 
all  these.  He  sees  generally  some  great  religious  prmciple 
violated.  The  people  of  America  or  of  England  have 
hastened  to  be  rich,  perchance,  and  they  have  not  been  inno- 
cent ;  or  those  of  Italy  have  trampled  on  the  rights  of  con- 
science, and  civil  liberty  Ues  prostrate.  The  powers  of  the 
Old  "World  have  become  steeped  in  luxury  and  extravagance, 
and  those  of  the  New  World,  perhaps,  are  not  free  from 
political  corruption.  Just  where  the  wisdom  of  the  wise 
man  fails  him,  and  the  intelligence  of  the  j^rudent  man 
is  brought  to  naught,  and  can  suggest  no  remedy,  the 
Christian  "has  imderstanding  of  the  times  to  know  what 
Israel  ought  to  do." 

All  the  disasters  and  failures,  all  the  horrors  and  excesses 
of  the  first  French  Revolution,  are  distinctly  attributable 
to  the  want  of  a  true  religion  in  the  hearts  of  the  masses, 
and  were  at  length  traced  to  it  most  clearly  and  distinctly 
by  the  very  Frenchmen  who  first  tamed  this  wild  political 
chaos.' 

What  is  the  whole  history  of  Spain  but  a  repetition  of 
the  same  great  lesson,  that  Uberty  can  not  flourish  in  the 
State  until  men  are  first  accustoij^ed  to  use  and  to  imjDrove 
it  in  religion  ? 

In  England,  where  pohtical  liberty  has  slowly  but  steadily 
advanced,  it  has  been  preceded  by  a  firm  and  correspond- 
ing progress  of  refigious  freedom.  The  repeal  of  the  Test 
and  Corporation  Acts  characteristically  went  before  the 
Reform  Bill,  and  rendered  it  inevitable. 

The  special  connection  of  the  Bajjtists  in  Europe  with  all 
'  Alison's  History  of  Europe,  vol.  ii.  p.  200.     Harper. 


ROBEKT     HALL    AND    DK.     KYLAND.  3G1 

the  great  movements  in  favor  of  liberty,  has  been  one 
wliich  can  never  give  them  cause  to  bhish.  During  the 
Revohitionary  War,  and  after  Lord  Chatham  liad  deserted 
the  cause  of  the  Colonies,  the  English  Baptists  remamed 
fast  friends  to  their  liberties,  and  this  even  while  Eng- 
land was  carrying  on  the  war;  and  it  is  a  fact  not  unworthy 
of  notice  and  of  record,  that  Robert  Hall  seems  to  have 
received  the  concei^tion  of  the  very  finest  passage  he  ever 
uttered  in  the  pulpit,  or  A^Tote  with  his  pen,  from  hearing 
his  father  and  Dr.  Ryland,  two  Baptist  ministers,  advocat- 
ing the  merits  of  the  Revolutionary  cause  ^ — a  passage 
considered  by  the  best  judges  as  "  unsurpassed  by  any  pro- 
duction of  modern  or  of  ancient  orators." 

If  from  England  we  turn  to  the  Continent,  almost  every 
kuigdom  of  Europe  has,  within  the  last  ten  years,  been  on 
the  eve  of  overthrowmg  its  monarch.  The  chief  reason 
why  so  little  progress  has  been  made  toward  Uberty  is  the 
dread  of  that  infidel,  red  rej)ublicanism,  which  threatens 
ihe  destruction  of  the  whole  social  system.  Men  "wisely,  in 
such  circumstances,  prefer  the  knowTi  evils  of  much  tyranny 
to  the  unkno^\^l  abuses  of  utter  anarchy.  France,  the  ex- 
periment-making nation  for  Europe,  has  tried  both. 

But  if  now  it  should  be  asserted  that  this  connection  be- 
tween Baptists  and  Hberal  prmciples  has  been  of  an  acci- 
dental nature,  or  if  it  should  be  demanded  what  great  re- 
ligious truths  are  held  by  them  pecuUarly  favorable  to  a 
true  and  yet  judicious  attachment  to  liberty,  we  need  only 
remind  the  reader  of  some  of  the  principles  which  we  have 
shown  to  belong  to  them  universally  and  eminently. 

1.  Their  reliance  on  the  JBlble,  and  the  Bible  alone,  as  their 
rule  of  faith  and  practice.     This  has  led  them  to  do  every 

'  See  Appendix  F.  p.  411, 
16 


362  THE    BIBLE    AND    FREEDOM. 

tiling  to  place  it  in  the  hands  of  the  whole  world,  and  has 
done  more  to  identify  them  with  the  cause  of  true  liberty, 
more  for  the  progress  of  mankind,  than  all  the  speculations 
of  philosophers. 

The  freest  nations  are  those  which  have  the  Bible  most 
thoroughly  in^a-ought  into  the  texture  of  their  constitu- 
tions ;  not  trusting  to  mere  natural  religion,  on  the  one 
hand,  or  to  the  Canon  Law  of  Roman  CathoUcism  on  the 
other.  If  we  take,  for  instance,  Christian  nations  as  a 
whole,  and  compare  them  with  the  heathen  kingdoms  of 
the  earth,  there  can  be  no  question  but  that  science,  litera- 
tm-e,  art,  national  power,  mdividual  security,  and  social 
happmess  greatly  preponderate  among  Christian  people. 
But  if  we  look  among  nominally  Christian  nations,  and 
ask  where  is  the  greatest  amoimt  of  true  Uberty,  happiness, 
and  rapid  national  advancement,  the  answer  must  come 
back,  that  it  is  in  those  nations  and  in  that  proportion  in 
which  the  Bible,  the  true  text-book  of  Christianity,  is  most 
circulated.  The  whole  history  of  the  world  shows  that 
atheism  on  the  one  hand,  and  superstition  on  the  other, 
destroy  liberty  in  any  nation. 

•2.  The  recognition  of  inalienable  rights  is  the  basis  of  all 
freedom,  and  the  vindication  of  the  rights  of  conscience  has 
done  more  for  the  liberties  of  mankind  than  can  easUy  be 
estimated. 

As  we  have  seen,  any  bold  achievement  in  favor  of  re- 
ligious freedom  has  always  been  followed  by  corresponduig 
successes  to  temporal  liberty.  The  English  Reformation 
in  religion  was  the  basis  of  modern  English  and  American 
freedom. 

Hence  the  vindication  of  the  inalienable  rights  of  con- 
science by  Roger  Williams,  and  their  practical  declaration 


THE    REFUGE    OF    HUMAN    EIGHTS,  363 

by  the  Baptists  in  Virginia,  did  so  mucli  to  prepare  the  way 
for  those  assertions  of  the  abstract  rights  of  citizens  which 
have  been  among  the  characteristic  features  of  American 
liberty. 

Liberty  of  conscience  has  ever  been  the  last  refuge  and 
hiding-place  of  all  the  other  rights  of  man.  Hence  has  it  al- 
ways been  tlie  most  persecuted  and  hated  by  tyrants.  Nor 
is  it  to  be  questioned  that  Roger  Williams  and  all  those 
Baptists  before  him,  who  asserted  the  sacredness  of  "  soul 
liberty"  did  in  that  thmg  strike  the  boldest  stroke  at  all 
tyranny,  and  establish  most  firmly  the  base  of  all  future 
successful  operations  against  despotism.  Liberty  of  speech 
on  other  subjects,  and  finally  liberty  of  action  grow  natural- 
ly by  degrees  out  of  this.  Men  miist  ever  be  educated  for 
liberty  before  they  will  know  how  to  use  it  without  infring- 
ing the  rights  of  others.  Religious  freedom  prepared 
and  trained  this  nation  for  the  use  of  civil  liberty,  by  the 
happy  and  considerate  acknowledgment  of  the  just  rights 
of  all  others,  A  nation  not  thus  trained,  like  France,  found 
it  impossible  to  be  free,  because  not  apj^reuticed  to  tliis  con- 
siderate use  of  its  liberty, 

3,  And  still  more  directly  are  Baptist  institutions  power- 
fully friendly  to  free  civil  government  by  the  form  of  theii" 
own  ecclesiastical  organizations,  A  person  looking  at  the 
various  denominations  in  this  country  superficially,  might  be 
disposed  to  believe  that  the  religious  and  civil  governments 
of  a  people  have  no  necessary  connection  with  each  other. 
But  yet  nothing  is  more  certain  and  demonstrable  than  that 
there  is  a  constant  tendency  in  the  two  to  approach  each 
other,  Li  the  time  of  Constantine  the  government  of  the 
Chiu'ch  gradually  assumed  the  form  of  that  of  the  State, 
the  ranks  of  the  hierarchy  and  the  divisions  of  its  metro- 


364  CHANGES    IN    CHURCH    GOVERNMENT. 

politan  dioceses  and  patriarcliites,  corresponding  with  simi- 
lar divisions  in  the  Roman  Emjiire.  By  degrees  Rome  Pa- 
gan was  broken  in  pieces,  but  Rome  Papal  grasped  the 
power  it  had  dropped,  sat  itself  in  the  vacant  chair  and  still 
imitates,  on  a  sf)iritual  scale,  as  nearly  as  it  can,  the  ancient 
temporal  sway. 

Bitt  notwithstandmg  all  its  boasted  miity  there  is  much 
divergence  in  its  practical  government  in  exact  correspond- 
ence ■with  the  political  institu^tions  of  the  various  lands  mto 
which  it  is  extended.  In  the  United  States,  for  instance, 
notwithstanding  all  the  efforts  of  bishops,  and  councils, 
and  legates,  we  find  a  variety  of  the  Roman  Catholic  re- 
ligion springing  up  vastly  different  from  that  even  of  Ire- 
land. We  find  lay  trustees  of  CathoUc  Churches  capable, 
sometimes  by  themselves,  of  resistmg  the  priesthood.  We 
find  the  Douay  Bible  more  generally  permitted,  sermons 
more  fi-equent  and  confessions  more  rare. 

In  the  Episcopal  Church  of  this  country  again  the  laity 
have  secured  to  them,  by  canons  and  constitutions,  rights 
quite  unknown  to  the  Church  of  England.  On  the  other 
hand  the  State,  in  like  manner,  m  a  great  measure  imbibes, 
by  a  kind  of  capillary  attraction,  its  constitutions  from  the 
religious  forms  of  government  to  ^^-hich  men  are  accustomed. 
Thus  the  centrahzation  of  English  Episcopal  power  in  the 
See  of  Canterbury  helped  in  no  small  degree  to  unite  the 
Heptarchy  into  one  nation.  Xor  is  it  without  some  found- 
ation that  an  analogy  has  been  supposed  to  exist  between 
the  three  orders  m  the  English  Church,  and  the  three  or- 
ders in  the  British  Constitution.  It  is  not,  therefore,  by 
accident,  but  by  tlie  natural  and  inevitable  tendency  of  things 
that  the  self-government  of  the  Churches  of  New  England 
led  to  self-government  in  the  civil  institutions,  wrought  out 


SUMMARY  J65 

by  the  Revolution  of  17V6,  or  tl^it  led  even  the  free-think- 
ing Jefferson,  in  Virginia,  to  look  forward  before  the  Revo- 
lution to  the  Baptist  form  of  chm-ch  government,  then  just 
becoming  popular  with  the  masses,  because  most  free,  as  the 
pattern  of  the  future  civU  government  of  the  Colonies. 


CONCLUDING    CHAPTER. 

We  commenced  this  volume  by  tracing  the  history  of  the 
struggle  for  religious  liberty  entered  mto  by  the  Baptists 
single-handed  and  alone,  and  we  have  seen  the  principles 
for  which  they  suflered  not  only  nationalized  in  this  coun- 
try and  engrossed  mto  its  very  Constitution,  but  rapidly 
spreading  throughout  Europe,  rescumg  the  Mazziuis  in 
Naples  from  the  power  of  the  priests,  and  AchUli  from  the 
dimgeons  of  the  Inquisition  in  Rome.  It  has  penetrated 
the  Mosque  of  St.  Sophia  in  Constantinople,  sheathing  for- 
ever the  persecutmg  sword  of  the  false  prophet. 

"We  have  seen,  too.  Baptist  principles  the  means  of  reviv- 
uig,  m  other  denominations,  the  requirement  of  personal 
piety  to  Church  fellowship,  until  it  has  made  indi\ddual 
choice  before  full  commmiion,  the  most  distmguisliing  and 
obvious  feature  of  American  Christianity. 

"We  have  seen  the  mfluence  of  this  denommation  in  chang- 
ing the  most  firmly  estabUshed  religious  usages  of  society, 
and  banishing  infant  sprmkling  to  such  an  extent  that  per- 
haps not  one  infant  in  ten,  born  in  the  United  States,  is 
now  the  subject  of  this  ceremony  where,  a  hundred  years 
ago,  hardly  one  in  ten  was  left  uninitiated.  The  change 
thus  w  I'ought  constitutes  one  of  the  most  powerful  revolu- 


366  SUMMARY. 

tions  as  to  tlie  terms  of  Cljristian  Chui-ch  membersliip  that 
have  taken  place  in  a  thousand  years. 

We  have  seen  not  only  the  prmciples  but  the  practices 
of  the  Baptists  extending  to  such  a  degree  that,  in  addition 
to  the  very  large  number  of  persons  rejecting  Lafant  bap- 
tism in  other  Churches,  a  quarter  of  the  whole  church  ac- 
commodation of  the  United  States  is  in  the  hands  of  thos 
who  immerse  adults  only  in  baj^tism.* 

"We  have  seen  this  denomination  originating  those  for- 
eign missionary  enterj^rises  of  modern  evangeUzation  which 
are  at  this  moment  producing  such  astonishing  effects  upon 
the  nations  of  the  East,  dashing  the  empire  of  China  in 
pieces  as  a  potter's  vessel,  and  destmed  apparently  to  bring 
about  the  latter-day  millennial  glories  of  the  Christian  cause. 
Their  ministers  were  the  first  to  suggest  and  engage  in 
those  gigantic  labors  of  modern  Bible  circulation,  Avhich 
have  pubHshed  ten  times  more  copies  of  the  word  of  God 
in  the  last  fifty  years  than  aU  which  were  put  in  circulation 
in  the  pre\aous  eighteen  hundred,  translating  the  Bible  mto 
the  languages  of  a  proi^ortionably  greater  number  of  the 
mhabitants  of  the  world. 

We  have  seen  their  views  of  rehgious  Hberty  and  the 

^  The  last  census  shows  the  whole  number  of  the  houses  of  worship 
for  the  United  States  to  be  33,061,  capable  of  seating  14,234,825,  of  this 
number,  i.  e.,  10,341  houses  of  worship,  capable  of  seating  3,576,199  per- 
sons, are  held  by  churches  practicing  adult  immersion  as  the  only  Chris- 
tian baptism.  Those  Christians  who  practice  mixed  communion  are  in 
this  estimate  mostly  counted  with  the  Pedobaptists.  I  have  here  included 
the  Campbellites  (who  do  not,  however,  exceed  in  number  those  Baptists 
in  sentiment  who  are  in  other  denominations),  but  if  they  are  omitted,  it 
will  not  essentially  vary  the  result  since  tvitliout  them  a  quarter  of  the 
whole  toiises  of  worship  in  this  country,  wanting  only  seventeen,  are 
Baptists. 


A     DEKP     FOUXDATIOX.  3G7 

reserved  rights  of  conscience  made  the  pattern  of  the  lib- 
erties and  reserved  rights  of  each  citizen,  and  their  very 
forms  of  .Church  government  examined  by  free-thinking 
philosophers  and  statesmen,  and,  after  mature  deliberation, 
declared  to  be  suggestive  of  the  best  form  of  government 
for  the  peojile  of  the  United  States.  Such  has  been  the 
progress  and  such  have  been  some  of  the  eiFects  of  Baptist 
principles  during  the  j^ast  hundred  years. 

It  surely  must  be  projDer  and  hnportant  to  trace  all 
this  on  the  ground  of  historic  truth.  The  history  of  a  doc- 
trine of  principle  is  far  more  valuable  than  that  of  a  sect. 
A  full  account  of  the  Baptists  as  a  denomination  has  not 
been  the  object  of  this  volume.  But  the  history  of  the 
spread  of  their  ][>rinciples  is  far  more  important  to  the 
world,  more  demonstrative  of  their  truth  or  falsehood,  and 
more  indicative  of  their  future  progress,  and  that  of  those 
who  uphold  them.  The  men  who  originate  the  most  im- 
portant movements,  seldom  are  the  men  to  record  them. 
Those  who  achieve  the  materials  for  history,  seldom  stop  to 
wi-ite  them  dpAvn.  Thus  far  Baj)tists  have  wi'ought  rather 
than  WTitten.  They  have  dug  a  deep  foundation,  running 
mider  groimd  through  the  history  of  Christianity  in  the 
world  and  resting  on  the  Rock  of  Ages.  But  as  a  denomi- 
nation they  have  not  occupied  its  pages  Asdth  a  description 
of  the  lofty  erections  which  they  have  reared.  As  in  the 
construction  of  some  large  buildmg  it  takes  months  to  dig 
away  the  rubbish,  and  lay  the  foundations  firm  so  that  the 
building  seems  long  m  reaching  the  level  of  the  surroimd- 
ing  earth,  while  after  that,  it  soon  appears  as  a  lofty  edifice 
that  shall  stand  for  ages ;  so  thus  far  the  progress  of  the 
Baptists  has  been  slow  and  laborious,  while  removhag  errors 
and  prejudices  fi'om  the  minds  of  nations  so  as  to  get  a 


368  DANGEROUS     ATTACKS. 

clear  space  and  settled  foundation,  upon  wliich  to  build. 
But  that  woi'k  accomplished,  the  rest  becomes  cei-tain,  easy 
and  enduring.  As  the  historian  Neander  once  remarked, 
"  There  is  a  future  for  you  Bajitists." 

And  further,  it  has  appeared  to  the  author  proper  to  ex- 
hibit these  developments  because  many  of  those  principles 
upon  which  it  had  been  supposed  that  all  Protestants  "vvere 
agreed,  have  of  late  years  been  made  the  objects  of  subtler 
and  more  dangerous  attack  than  ever  before — these  attacks 
nsually  coming  from  those  "U'lio  were  themselves,  in  their 
religious  antecedents,  leaders  m  all  the  evangelical  move- 
ments among  our  Pedobaptist  brethren.  Infant  baptism  is 
also  the  chief  uistrument  ui  all  these  opposmg  movements. 
In  the  hands  of  the  sons  of  a  Wilberforce  it  is  the  lever  by 
which  they  and  multitudes  more,  prejudiced  against  dissent, 
would  upheave  Protestantism  from  the  foundation  of  the 
Apostles  and  prophets ;  in  those  of  Dr.  Xevin  it  conducts 
to  a  High  Church  ground,  equally  fatal  to  evangelical  piety 
in  others,  though  not,  perhaps,  in  him.  It  is  time  to  show 
historically  that  on  the  scale  of  a  himdred  years,  the  most 
consistent,  durable,  and  reliable  plan  for  an  evangelical 
Church  is  that  of  bajitism  upon  a  credible  profession  of 
personal  faith. 

But  further,  this  historical  sketch  of  Baptist  principles  is 
also  written  for  the  sake  of  many  of  the  Pedobaptist  breth- 
ren in  Christ,  who  are  truly  evangelical  in  spirit,  who  ab- 
hor Romanism  in  all  its  forms ;  M^ho  would  rather  give  up 
infant  baptism  than  encourage  Popery,  but  who  also  view 
the  Baptists  as  men  dotmg  about  questions  and  strifes  to 
no  profit,  magnifying  little  matters  and  making  a  mere  cer- 
emony the  foundation  of  a  sect. 

We  may  ask   such   candidly  if  under lyiiig   the   simple 


THE    PROrER    REMEDY.  369 

forms  which  Baptists  profess,  there  is  not  a  deep  and  dis- 
tinctive theory,  clear  and  evangehcal,  embodyuig  what  is 
vital,  necessary,  and  consistent  to  Christian  visible  Church 
membership  in  the  greatest  smiplicity — if  experience  has 
not  proved  the  hnportance  of  our  prmciples  not  only  to 
ourselves  but  to  the  age  in  which  we  live.  In  looking  for- 
ward to  the  unknown  future,  and  all  the  possible  changes 
and  corruptions  anticipated  by  such  men  as  Bunsen,  likely 
to  take  place,  it  may  be  asked  if  these  principles  do  not 
aiford  the  most  secure  and  consistent  platform  on  Avhich  to 
build  Christian  Churches.  Indeed,  seeing  that  Pedoba})- 
tists  can  admit  the  validity  of  the  initiatory  rite  as  performed 
by  Baptists,  whUe  they  are  unable  to  do  the  same  in  regard 
to  that  performed  otherwise,  it  may  be  asked  if  there 
s^iould  not  be  a  general  return  to  the  ancient  practice  of 
'jnmersion  indicated  in  the  original  command  "  to  JBap- 
tize''' — and  if  it  could  not  t)e  deferred  altogether,  mitU  the 
time  of  personal  and  chosen  faith,  being  now  generally 
acknowledged  to  be  incomplete  without  it.  Then  alone 
it  can  be  valid,  and,  therefore,  appropriate.  Other  denomi- 
nations may  thmk  it  unnecessary  and  a  weakness  in  Bap- 
tists to  plead  so  strenuously  for  points  tike  these ;  but  they 
know  from  the  experience  of  the  past  that  these  greatly 
mvolve  the  permanence  of  the  evangelical  system. 

Many  are  probably  struggling  for  light  upon  their  j^ath 
of  duty  m  this  very  respect.  The  general  decline  of  infmt 
baptism  shows  that  this  must  be  the  case.  The  remarks 
and  biographies  of  many  of  the  leading  defenders  of  the 
system  point  to  the  same  truth.  When  such  a  man  as  Dr. 
Bushnell  tells  us  that  at  the  thne  of  his  ordination,  so 
strong  were  his  doubts  and  so  little  could  he  find  that  was 
positively  in  favor  of  the  system,  that  he  came  near  being 

16* 


370  TEMPTATIONS     OF    THE    EXEMT. 

reject  3d  from  ordination,  and  could  only  at  last  find  ground 
for  it  in  a  system  -wliicli  all  bis  brethren  give  up  as  full  of 
dangerous  tendencies,  surely  tbere  must  be  many  who  have 
his  doubts  's\T.thout  his  method  of  resohong  them.  Dr.  Alex- 
ander and  one  of  his  fellow  professors  for  some  years  had 
to  give  up  the  practice  of  mfant  baj^tism,  and  hesitated 
about  the  duty  of  joiuing  the  Baptists,  and  at  last  were  de- 
terred chiefly  by  the  dangerous  idea  that  Baptist  "  notions 
of  the  purity  of  the  Chm-ch"  are  "  too  rigkl^''''  and  by  a 
want  of  knowledge  of  Church  history,  which,  though  al- 
lowable enough  forty  years  ago,  every  reader  of  Xeander 
or  Augusti  could  at  once  supply. 

The  writer  was  assured  from  a  most  authentic  source, 
while  in  an  Eastern  city  of  the  Union  a  few  years  age,  that 
a  late  distinguished  evangelical  divme,  whose  name  is  fa- 
miliar to  thousands,  told  a  ladj  who  applied  to  him  with 
doubts  ujion  the  subject,  that  he  himself  had  been  much 
tried  in  the  same  way,  but  at  last  had  concluded  these 
were  temptations  of  the  enemy  of  souls,  and  had  j^rayed 
against  them  as  such. 

Should  such  doubts  as  to  the  truth  of  this  or  any  other 
point  of  religious  duty  molest  any  of  our  Pedobaptist 
brethren,  nothing  surely  can  be  more  appropriate  than  to 
pray,  but  not  as  many  excellent  men  do,  prejudguig  while 
they  pray.  A  more  trustmg  sjDirit,  and  the  desire  that  God 
vnVi  lead  them  into  all  truth,  clear  their  minds  from  mis- 
takes, and  give  them  grace  to  tread  boldly  the  j^ath  of 
duty ;  faithful  in  that  which  is  least,  as  well  as  in  that 
which  appears  greatest,  is  surely  Tviser.  It  was  no  tempta- 
tion of  the  Evil  One  that  led  Baptist  Noel  lately  to  forsake 
the  Church  of  England  and  become  a  Baptist. 

When  a  child  is  added  to  a  Pedobaptist  family,  it  is 


AM    I     BAPTIZED.  371 

I  robably  dedicated  by  the  pious  parents  to  God  iu  prayer, 
t  efore  any  tiiouglits  about  a  christening  occur.  But  at  last 
the  question  comes  up  for  practical  solution,  "  Shall  we 
present  this  child  for  baptism  ?"  and  Scripture  is  sometimes 
hunted  for  proofs,  and  books  and  tracts  are  examined,  only 
to  discover  how  weak  and  insufficient  they  all  appear  in  its 
suj)port.  The  matter  is  suffered  perhaps  to  lie  over.  An- 
other and  another  little  one  cause  fresh  remonstrance  on 
the  part  of  the  mmister,  and  fresh  mvestigation  on  that  of 
the  parent,  A\4th  the  settled  conviction  now  that  there  is  no 
divine  authority  for  infant  baptism. 

Sometimes  a  sermon  iu  defense  of  sj)rinklmg  leads  to 
doubt,'  and  the  question,  often  stifled,  comes  plainly  up, 
^'' Am  I  baptized  P^^     And  then  the  Christian  finds  that 

1  The  following  anecdote  was  given  me  by  a  gentleman  who  witnessed 
the  scene,  in  South  Carolina  : — The  Methodists,  Baptists,  and  Presbyte- 
rians, in  a  small  community,  agreed  to  build  a  meeting-house  in  com- 
mon— preaching  by  turns.  When  it  came  to  the  turn  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian minister,  he  said  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  preach  on  baptism,  and  did 
so,  remarking  that  he  should  give  them  the  truth,  and  the  whole  truth, 
on  the  subject.  In  the  course  of  his  discourse  he  quoted  Heb.  x.  22 : 
"  Having  your  hearts  sprinkled  from  an  evil  conscience ;"  and  there  he 
stopped.  A  little  German  member  of  the  Baptist  church  was  sitting  in 
one  comer  of  the  house.  He  could  only  speak  broken  English ;  but, 
Bible  in  hand,  he  turned  to  each  passage  referred  to.  Observing  the 
minister  stop  at  "conscience  "  he  continued  out  loud,  "a7id  your  bodies 
vashed-  vith  pure  vater."  This  much  confused  the  minister,  who  to  re- 
cover himself  repeated  his  last  sentence,  "  having  your  hearts  sprinkled 
from  an  evil  conscience ;"  "  and  your  bodies  vashed  vith  pure  vater,'"  was 
again  the  response  of  the  pertinacious  German.  The  minister  was  so  an- 
noyed that  he  wound  up  his  discourse.  The  congregation  all  began  to 
read  for  themselves,  and  several  became  Baptists.  As  for  the  little  Ger- 
man, he  defended  himself  by  saying,  "  Vy  de  minister  say  he  vas  going 
to  give  us  de  truth  and  de  whole  truth,  and  this  vas  de  whole  truth." 


3V2  REMAINING     ON     SUFFERANCE 

botli  th  3  mtentiou  and  the  form,  the  feith  and  the  ceremony 
of  infant  spiinklmg,  are  so  completely  distmct  from  those  of 
believer's  baptism,  that  he  is  not.  Some  will  tell  him,  that 
though  originally  imperfect,  his  faith  and  subsequent  pro- 
fession have  ratified  his  baptism  and  made  it  valid.  But  he 
knows  that  no  other  mstrument,  so  far  departmg,  both  in 
form  and  spirit,  from  the  prescribed  standard,  could  be  rati- 
fied by  any  subsequent  act,  but  wonld  have  to  be  executed 
afresh. 

Others  ■will  urge  that  "  it  is  a  matter  of  no  miportance." 
But  he  sees  that  if  one  sacrament  is  of  no  hnportance, 
neither  is  the  other,  neither  are  visible  Churches,  nor  mmis- 
ters,  nor  Sabbaths — that  all  stand  on  the  same  level,  and 
must  stand  or  fall  together — that,  whatever  may  be  their 
importance  to  membership  in  the  in-vdsible  Church,  they 
essentially  belong  to  \dsible  Chm-ches  as  s,  \  and  must  be 
upheld  "  as  they  were  delivered,"  or  not  at  all. 

Some,  like  Coleridge,  will  claim  a  diecretionary  power 
for  the  Church  to  alter  and  amend  its  own  constitution. 
But  this  either  makes  it  a  merely  human  institution,  a  sim- 
ply voluntary  Society,  or  else  so  divine  a  body  that  its  au- 
thority equals  that  of  the  Saviour  who  foimded  it. 

r^issatisfied  with  every  defense  of  infhnt  baptism,  a  pious 
Pedobaptist  wiU  often  apply  to  his  minister  to  baptize  him. 
But  then  the  pastor  feels  that  by  so  doing  he  would  ac- 
knowledge that  all  infant  baptism  might  be  reasonably  re- 
garded as  a  nullity.  Sometimes  this  difiiculty  is  got  over, 
and  the  individual  remams  in  a  Church  in  which  he  has  but 
little  influence,  and  is  perhaps  stripped  of  office  on  accomit 
of  his  views.  He  is  permitted  to  remam,  but  only  on  Suf- 
ferance, not  on  equal  footing,  while  the  whole  influence  of 
the  Church  is  directed  to  the  support  of  infant  sprinkling, 


AMONG    PEDOBAPTISTS.  873 

by  its  sermons,  catechisms,  Sabbath-school  insti-uction,  and 
the  public  administration  of  it  as  a  Chnrch  rite. 

Where  a  person  is  already  a  member  of  an  Evangelical 
Ch  irch,  to  which  he  is  bound  by  many  ties,  he  may  easUy 
think,  possibly,  that  his  duty  lies  rather  among  them  than 
others. 

But  then,  perhaps,  this  further  view  of  the  case  yvWl  pre- 
sent itself,  that  among  the  duties  of  the  visible  Churches  is 
that  of  upholding  ordinances,  keepmg  them  as  they  were 
originally  delivered.  Each  approach  to  the  commtinion 
table  pledges  every  member  to  this.  The  case  then  would 
seem  to  stand  thus :  All  the  members  of  visible  Churches 
are  trustees,  to  whom  it  is  committed  of  God  to  see  that 
vahd  baptism  is  upheld  and  urged  in  His  name,  and  ad- 
ministered to  the  right  characters,  and  in  proper  form,  A 
conscientious  ti .  jtee  finds  that  through  mistake  and  care- 
lessness those  with  whom  he  had  been  accustomed  to  act 
have  not  properly  quaUfied  themselves  for  tliis  duty,  and 
have  been  in  the  habit  of  voting  to  administer  it  to  unquali- 
fied persons,  and  in  a  manner  quite  unauthorized  by  the 
trust.  He  is  so  satisfied  of  this  that  he  has  anew  qualified 
himself  to  act  in  the  appointed  form.  But  others  remain 
as  ignorant  on  this  subject  as  he  was,  and  by  this  means  are 
perpetuating  the  error  and  all  its  evil  consequences.  There 
are,  however,  other  bodies  of  trustees,  who,  having  become 
duly  qualified,  rightly  administer  the  trust,  and  thus  correct 
the  mistakes  of  their  erroneous  brethren.  The  question  is, 
loith  ichich  of  these  bodies  shall  he  act  in  future  as  a  thor- 
oughly consistent  Christian  man  f 

But  the  subject  of  this  volume  "Nrill,  it  is  hoped,  afibrd 
some  matter  of  useful  meditation  to  Baptists  /  and  it  has 
been  for  their  sakes  chiefly  that  it  has  been  wi-itten.     We 


374  THE    USEFUL    EARNESTNESS 

onglit  to  mark  the  faithfulness  of  the  Great  Head  of  the 
Church  to  those  who  act,  rclpngly  upon  His  word  without 
lookuig  to  consequences.  The  fathers  of  tlie  Baptist  de- 
nomination in  this  country  a  hundred  years  ago,  Avere  men 
of  this  stamp  ;  men  of  great  firnmess  and  independence  of 
character ;  men  Avlio  walked  alone  with  God,  and  could, 
therefore,  endure  to  stand  alone  before  men.  There  were 
among  them,  here  and  there,  those  of  cultivated  mind  and 
of  some  repute  for  leammg,  and  attainments  in  the  denomi- 
nations they  left.  But  as  a  body  they  were  all  men  who 
loved  righteousness — men  of  great  endurance  for  the 
truth's  sake.  If  at  any  time  since  the  baptisms  of  the  day 
of  Pentecost  there  were  a  body  of  persons  who,  from  jjure 
and  simple  love  of  truth,  and  at  the  cost  of  every  thing 
most  dear  to  men,  came  out  from  the  world  and  sometimes 
from  other  denominations,  to  form  new  and  pure  churches, 
they  were  the  early  Baptists  of  this  country.  Noble  m- 
deed  were  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  Massachusetts  in  all 
these  resj)ects,  but  they  made  one  mistake.  They  were 
afraid  to  trust  the  truth  to  stand  alone.  They  wanted  to 
coerce  men  to  make  them  good,  and  to  get  children  com- 
mitted by  vows  before  they  could  understand,  lest  they 
should  not  be  willmg  to  commit  themselves  afterward. 
Such,  indeed,  has  ever  been  the  history  of  infant  baptism, 
and  they  simply  retained  an  error  which  had  originated 
ages  before,  and  which  they  rendered  less  harmful  than 
any  of  their  predecessors.  But  they  had  many  prejudices 
not  easily  rooted  out. 

The  Baptists,  on  the  other  hand  were  more  completely 
formed  upon  abstract  JVeio  Testament  prindples  from 
Roger  Williams  downward.  To  the  superficial  they  may 
have  seemed  too  fond  of  an  abstract  correctness  with  too 


OF    THE    EAKLY    BAPTISTS.  375 

little  regard  to  what  was  practical.  It  is  on  this  point  that 
we  have  been  anxious  to  vindicate  their  memory.  For  the 
first  hundred  years  of  their  existence  m  this  country  they 
stood  very  much  alone,  insulted,  fined,  imprisoned,  and  de- 
spised. In  Massachusetts  this  was  the  case  up  to  the  War 
of  Independence.  They  were  yet  more  unjustly  and  cruelly 
persecuted  in  Virginia  for  simply  "  preaching  the  Gospel 
of  the  Son  of  God."  Few  of  them  had  education,  and  not 
many  Avealth.  They  were  looked  ui^on  by  aU.  others  with 
a  hatred  it  is  now  difiicult  to  conceive.  They  needed,  and 
God  gave  to  them,  intrepidity  of  character  to  endure  and 
to  sufier  without  retaliation  on  the  one  hand,  or  flinchmg 
on  the  other.  They  were  not  reeds  shaken  by  the  wind ; 
and  in  raiment  they  approached  him  who  wore  the  garment 
of  camels'  haii'  more  closely  far  than  those  clad  in  soft  rai- 
ment, and  who  feed  delicately.  They  were  men  deeply 
impressed  with  the  importance  of  the  peculiar  principles 
upon  ichich  they  had  planted  themselves — principles  un- 
folded in  the  former  pages  of  this  work ;  and  they  reitei*- 
ated  them  again  and  again,  not  separately,  but  as  an  aggre- 
gate— not  in  the  form  of  dissected  limbs  of  truth,  but  as 
one  living  body,  clothed  "with  flesh,  and  into  which  God 
breathed  the  breath  of  heavenly  life.  These  truths  lay  in 
theii'  mmd  as  a  simple  whole,  no  part  of  which  could  be 
touched  and  abstracted  without  some  injury  to  the  rest. 
This  was  the  essence  of  theii-  Church  system,  this  the  life 
of  their  cause.  The  sunj^hcity,  the  consistency,  and  the 
intimate  connection  of  every  part  Avith  the  whole,  they 
deeply  felt.  That  scheme  was  the  same  that  the  Savioui 
had  embodied  eighteen  hundred  years  before  in  the  DivLoo 
and  lining  organization  of  His  Church  system.  These  men 
felt  its  power  and,  therefore,  they  spoke.    They  had  a  boldei 


316  THE     GREAT    DANGER 

way  of  instructing  their  cliurches  iii  those  truths  of  whioh 
baptism  is  the  symbol,  than  is  now  common.  They  brought 
it  into  the  foreground  as  the  New  Testament  unquestion- 
ably does,  and  gave  it  a  conspicuousness  as  the  most  eloquent 
preacher  of  all  those  fundamental  truths  with  which  it  was 
associated  in  their  minds..  It  was  this  boldness,  this  mi- 
questionable  Scriptiiralness  of  their  statements  which  gave 
Baptists  aU  their  power  and  success.  Itwas  not  their  argu 
ments  but  their  declarations  that  succeeded.  Their  views 
on  baptism  do  not  requu-e  much  reasoning  to  prove  them 
true,  for  they  are  quite  obvious.  The  burden  of  proof  Ues 
on  the  other  side  to  show  that  something  else  may  possi- 
bly be  true  also.  It  is  not  by  critical  discussions  on  the 
word.  (?a77T/^w,  however  appropriate  in  their  place,  perhaps, 
that  this  controversy  is  going  to  be  settled  or  exhibited  in  its 
true  light,  but  rather  by  keeping  all  tlie  principles  of  which 
baptism  is  the  sjTubol  connected  together  as  a  consistent 
whole.)  just  as  they  are  combined  in  the  New  Testament. 
And  it  has  been  admitted  and  proved  by  the  ablest  organ  of 
Presbyterianism '  that  infant  baptism  is  utterly  at  war  with 
the  whole  Scripture  representation  of  this  ordinance. 

There  is  not  the  slightest  fear  of  any  Baptists  ever  com- 
ing to  disbelieve  m  the  great  distinctive  features  of  theu' 
denominational  sentiments.  But  there  is  a  danger  at  the 
present  day  of  quite  a  different  character,  i.  e.,  that  they 
should  begin  to  believe  them  so  plain  and  clear,  as  not  to  be 
Avorth  maintauiing — as  sure  to  make  their  way  without  any 
advocacy. 

It  is  painful  to  differ  fi-om  other  Christians,  and  hence  the 
whole  subject  is  often  forcedly  kept  out  of  sight.     Then  it 
is  soon  urged  that  baptism  is  non-essential,  and  this  is  reit- 
1  The  "North  British  Review,"  August,  1852,  Art.  3. 


or    BAPTISTS.  377 

erated  wi  .li  an  emphasis  wliicli  shows  that  a  great  deal  more 
is  meant  by  it  than  the  very  common-phice  and  nniversally 
believed  truth  which  the  words  pro2:)erly  affirm,  i.  e.,  that 
persons  may  be  saved  without  ba})tism.  But  thus,  singularly 
enough,  it  happens  that  the  very  assertion  most  opposed  to 
the  saving  efficacy  of  water  baptism,  becomes  the  niain  ar- 
gument for  not  disturbing  the  corruption  of  that  ordinance 
which  most  essentially  teaches  it.  This  sentunent  generally 
means  m  the  mouth  of  those  avIio  use  it,  that  "  baptism  is  a 
inatter  of  no  hnportance?^  This  once  admitted.  Baptist 
principles  may  one  after  another  be  rapidly  ignored,  even 
where  the  truth  of  them  is  never  questioned. 

Without  a  strong  regard  to  their  history  and  the  prin- 
cij)les  of  their  ancestors,  a  denomination  may  quite  lose  sight 
of  those  distinctive  peculiarities  which  have  been  the  source 
of  its  usefulness  to  the  Church  and  to  the  world. 

When  a  person  has  been  brought  up  a  conscientioiis  and 
thorough  Pedobaptist,  and  in  after  life  embraces  Baptist 
principles,  he  generally  feels  very  vividly  the  importance  of 
the  discovery  he  has  made,  and  the  clear  and  firm  Biblical 
character  which  true  baptism  has  imjjarted  to  the  Avhole 
system  of  his  belief  and  practice.  Hence  he  generally 
becomes  a  strong  and  earnest  advocate  of  these  sentiments, 
from  a  conviction  of  their  importance. 

But  in  Baptist  families,  among  young  people  brought  up 
in  these  principles,  the  fcclmg  is  often  very  different. 
Without  doubting  generally  the  truths  they  find  it  difficult 
to  realize  the  hnportance  to  the  world  and  to  the  Church, 
of  views  which  to  them  seem  so  simple  as  to  be  quite  trite 
and  common-place. 

Few  children  of  Baptist  parents  have  perhaps  grown  up 
without  a  difficulty  of  this  kind.     They  see  pious  and  ex- 


378  THE     VALUE     OF 

cellent  Pedobaptists,  whom  tliey  resj^ect  and  love,  and  love  as 
Christians,  and  they  ask  what  is  there  after  all  so  important  in 
Baptist  principles?  Here  are  Pedobaptist  ministers  and 
members,  who,  except  that  they  hold  some  exploded  and 
imintelhgible  notions  of  infant  Church  membership,  and 
practice  spi-inkihig,  are  as  good,  and  as  pious,  and  as  Tvise,  as 
any  Christians  Hving. 

It  takes  (we  speak  from  observation),  some  time,  some 
experience,  and  some  study  of  the  natural  development  of 
principles  into  practices,  to  know  truly  how  to  estimate  the 
importance  of  any  abstract  truth,  and  many  persons,  for 
want  of  this,  sujopose  that  Baj^tists  attach  too  much  import- 
ance to  their  own  A'iews,  and  are  prej^ossessed  in  favor  of 
them,  merely  because  their  fathers  were,  and  not  because 
there  is  any  thiug  in  their  nature  that  renders  them  im- 
portant. 

This  work  has  been  written  to  meet  that  conscientious 
laxity  of  views  which  arises,  not  from  too  great  a  love  of 
other  Christians,  but  from  ignorance  of  the  hnportance  of 
Baptist  prmciples  to  the  evangeUcal  history  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, and  to  the  success  of  many  of  those  movements 
which  are  the  greatest  glory  of  the  present  age. 

When  an  agricultural  chemist  by  minute  analysis,  has 
satisfied  himself  that  a  jDarticular  soil  contains  two  or  thi-ee 
thousand  parts  too  much  of  the  protoxide  of  iron,  though 
the  soil  may  appear  excellent,  though  wheat  may  gi'ow  in 
it  tall  and  heavy,  yet  he  knows  from  his  analysis  that  the 
wheat  will  be  liable  to  rust.  And  so  as  he  analyzes  vari- 
ous soils,  he  can  teU,  from  differences  that  escape  all,  but 
the  most  muaute  tests,  that  one  soil  will  most  product- 
ively yield  wheat,  and  another  beans,  and  another  clover. 
The  real  importance  of  the  study  of  Church  history  rests 


AXALYZING     PKIXCITLES.  379 

on  the  same  basis.  It  enables  us  to  estimate  the  value 
to  the  world  and  to  the  Church,  of  certain  principles,  to 
analyze  them  by  the  tests  of  the  Gospel,  to  weigh  them 
in  the  balances  of  the  sanctuary,  and  thus  to  ascertain  be- 
forehand, their  ultimate  effects. 

The  superficial  farmer  might  esteem  it  a  matter  of  but 
little  consequence  to  know  if  his  soil  had  a  thousand  parts 
more  or  less  of  gypsum,  or  the  salts  of  sul^ihuric  acid.  But 
the  more  enlightened  man  would  regulate  his  purchase  and 
his  expectations  upon  just  such  facts  as  these.  So  to  persons 
unaccustomed  to  analyze  and  estimate  the  value  of  prin- 
ciples m  history,  those  of  the  Baptists  may  seem  of  little 
importance.  But  to  such  as  look  further,  we  are  per- 
suaded they  vnll  appear  in  a  very  diflercnt  light.  Even  on 
the  scale  of  a  century,  facts  of  the  deepest  significance  and 
imjiortance  to  all  who  love  evangelical  truth,  are  connected 
Avith  these  principles. 

Doubtless  in  nature,  very  many  of  the  most  important 
phosphates  in  the  soil,  and  which  weighed  separately  in 
the  scale  of  the  apothecary  would  seem  pitifully  light  and 
commercially  valueless,  may,  as  chemical  ingredients  stimu- 
lating the  life  of  every  seed,  increase  the  price  of  land  a 
hundredfold.  Or  the  same  amount  of  rusty  iron,  which  as 
metal  woilld  not  be  worth  a  cent,  duly  mixed  up  in  the  soil, 
may,  by  means  of  its  very  oxidation,  give  its  most  import- 
ant productive  quahties  to  the  land.  It  is  thus,  too,  with 
j^rinciples  in  the  constitution  of  a  Church.  By  theological 
analysis  we  may  define,  by  our  systems  demonstrate  them 
in  few  words,  but  in  order  for  them  to  have  their  appropri- 
ate and  vitalizmg  power  upon  the  Church  and  upon  the 
world,  it  is  not  enough  that  they  be  accurately  stated  and 
logically  proved,  but  that  they  should  occuj^y  just  that  size 


380  MUTUAL     APPEOACHES     OF 

and  shape,  that  proportion  and  position  in  the  Christian  life 
and  Church  Hfe,  which  Christ  and  His  Apostles  originally 
gave  them. 

Many  things  contribute  to  produce  lax  views  of  these  dis- 
tinctive pecuUarities.  There  is  tar  less  actual  difference  be- 
tween the  Baptists  and  many  other  denominations  than  there 
was  a  century  back.  The  Presbyterians  are  now  as  a  body 
all  evangelical,  and  nowhere  are  the  doctrmes  of  grace  more 
faithfully  preached  than  among  them.  The  separation  of 
the  orthodox  Congregationalists  from  the  Unitarians  has 
brought  the  former  of  these  bodies  to  the  same  happy  po- 
sition, with  a  greater  correctness  and  freedom  in  their  sys- 
tem of  Church  government.  The  Methodists,  now  com- 
pletely distinct  from  the  Episcopal  Church,  preach  the 
doctrines  of  the  new  birth  with  the  greatest  earnestness 
and  success,  while  what  is  left  of  the  evangelical  portion 
of  the  Episcopal  Church  has  become  more  zealously  anti- 
sacramental  from  their  opposition  to  Puseyism.  These  have 
all  drawn  much  nearer  to  the  Baptists  than  formerly.  Tliey 
have,  too,  in  most  cases,  qiiite  altered  then*  to7ie.  Now 
they  are  generally  charitable,  brotherly  and  kind.  Some 
of  them  have  made  the  most  Christian  concessions  as  to  the 
trvth  of  these  prmci])les,  and  done  ample  justice  to  the  exer- 
tions of  the  Baptists.  In  other  mstances,  and  very  ex- 
tensively, without  any  controversy,  they  have  given  up  the 
preaching  and  the  practice  of  infant  baptism.  Indeed  their 
chief  plea  now  is  that  baptism  is  a  non-essential  and  there- 
fore they  suppose  an  unimportant  matter. 

The  Baptists  have  also  approached  other  denominations 
in  some  respects.  AU  have  greatly  advanced  in  the  com- 
forts and  refinements  of  life  during  this  last  century.  In 
the  education  of  their  ministers,  in  the  commodiousness, 


BAPTISTS     AKD    PEDOBAPTISTS.  381 

style  and  decorations  of  their  houses  of  worship,  there  has 
heen  a  general  assimilation  of  Baptists  with  other  denomi- 
nations, to  such  a  degree  that  in  any  of  our  cities  and 
towns  a  person  might  attend  most  of  the  different  congre- 
gations for  years  and  so  far  as  these  things  go,  not  be  able 
to  conjecture  Mdth  what  denomination  he  was  worshiping. 

And  might  we  not  go  further  and  add  that  there  is  so 
very  little  that  is  distinguishing  in  the  character  of  the  ser- 
mons themselves,  and  of  the  whole  worship,  and  impression 
left,  that  unless  a  person  should  attend  upon  some  baptismal 
occasion,  he  might  be  present  for  months  and  years  without 
bemg  able  to  discover  any  of  our  denominational  principles. 
This  would  not  have  been  the  case  a  hundred  years  ago. 

The  causes  of  this  difference  are  worth  notice.  Our 
young  ministers  study  theology  as  a  science  after  the  Col- 
lege course,  and  because  in  that  time  Baptism  as  a  distinct 
point  may  properly  occupy  but  a  lecture  or  two  of  their 
systematic  theology,  they,  on  entering  the  pulpit,  pursue  a 
proportionable  distribution  in  their  sermons,  and  empty  out 
a  course  of  systematic  lectures  m  which  each  part  of  divine 
ti'uth  is  separately  discussed,  and  dissected  with  clerical 
nicety,  but  nothing  more.  This  is  a  grave  mistake,  not  at  all 
necessarily  arising  from  theological  education,  which  should 
indeed  rather  correct  it.  It  is  just  as  erroneous  as  for  a 
surgeon,  when  sent  for  to  cure  a  wound,  forgetting  the  dis- 
tinction between  livuig  organism  and  dead  matter,  to  dis- 
sect the  limb  instead  of  applying  a  balm.  Let  the  student 
analyze  closely  in  the  dissecting-room^  but  let  the  physician 
of  souls  never  forget  that  he  is  sent  of  God  to  deal  with 
livmg  men,  to  bind  up  their  wounded  sj^irits,  to  establish  or 
to  feed  the  Church,  the  body  of  Christ.  It  is  not  by  analy- 
sis but  by  syyithesis,  not  by  dissection  but  by  nutrition  that 


382  EXCIIAIfGE     OF    POSITION 

this  is  to  "be  done.  There  is  too  much  of  mere  Ji'v  dis- 
cussion, and  too  little  of  the  freedom  of  Biblical  preaching 
and  exposition,  too  Httle  of  the  simplicity  and  straight- 
forwardness of  the  Gospel,  too  little  heart  in  all  preaching 
at  the  present  day. 

It  is  well  to  consider  how  completely  Churches,  like  in- 
dividuals, are  altered  by  becoming  imitators  of  the  points 
of  usefulness  belonging  to  others,  instead  of  developing  in 
a  natural  manner  the  ideas  arismg  out  of  their  own  princi- 
ples and  circumstances. 

A  few  years  ago,  especially  in  England,  the  Episcopal 
Church  was  noted  for  a  want  of  flexibility  m  all  its  minis- 
trations. Xot  only  its  prayers  were  previously  prepared, 
but  its  sermons  and  its  regulations  were  all  gone  through 
Avith  so  much  formahty,  and  so  Httle  adaptation  to  the 
various  wants  of  the  congregation,  as  to  drive  from  the  es- 
tablishment many  families  who  wished  to  enjoy  an  earnest 
and  practical  i:)iety.  The  Dissenters  meanwhile  were  poor 
and  far  inferior  in  education,  weallh  and  all  external  attrac- 
tions. But  they  were  zealoua,  earnest  men,  who  sought  to 
do  the  people  good.  Their  preacliing  was  for  the  most  part 
extemporaneous,  it  applied  the  Bible  closely  to  the  wants 
of  their  hearers,  and  had  little  that  was  dry  and  dogmatic. 
It  came  from  the  heart  and  it  went  to  the  heart.  There 
might  be  no  choir  or  organ  in  the  gallery,  but  the  tune  was 
sure  to  be  such  that  the  whole  congregation  could  jom.  In 
this  way  they  won  upon  the  masses,  who  saw  among  them 
the  signs  of  a  lii'ing  piety,  and  half  the  people  became  Dis- 
senters, supporting  the  religion  of  the  State,  and  their  o%vn 
besides.  But  now  all  this  is  much  changed.  The  Dissent- 
ers have  become  wealthy,  their  church  accoimnodations 
have  improved,  scientific  singmg  has  greatly  superseded 


i:n^  englaxd.  383 

that  of  the  congregation,  and  scientific  essays  have  too  ninch 
taken  the  place  of  earnest  preaching.  They  have  become 
akaost  as  stifl'  and  inflexible  as  the  EpiscopaUans  used  to  be. 

Meanwhile,  among  the  more  pious  clergy  of  the  English 
Establishment  there  has  arisen  a  spirit  of  new  life.  Seeing 
that  they  were  losmg  their  congregations,  they  sought  and 
they  found  out  the  cause.  Many  of  the  bishops  exhort 
their  clergy  to  abandon  the  habit  of  reading  their  dis- 
courses, and  to  i^reach  extemporaneously.  They  cultivate 
congregational  singing,  and  persuade  the  whole  audience 
to  utter  the  responses.  They  study  to  make  their  visits, 
their  preaching,  and  their  labors  tell  upon  the  masses,  and 
have  come  round  wisely  to  the  greatest  possible  simplicity 
and  earnestness  m  their  duties.  The  result  is,  that  they  are 
at  this  moment  rapidly  gaining  again  upon  the  common 
people,  who,  to  their  surprise,  find  an  earnestness  and  life  in 
the  Established  preachers  which  the  Dissenters  seem  to 
have  lost  in  anti-Corn-Law  leagues,  and  political  excite- 
ments. A  minister  of  the  Church  of  England,  on  visiting 
this  coxmtry  not  long  ago,  exjDressed  himself  with  surprise 
that  in  so  young  and  free  a  country  the  religious  services 
should  be  so  artificial ;  the  choir-singing  so  artistic  that 
few  could  enjoy  it,  and  the  preaching  so  studied  and  in- 
tellectual that  few  could  follow  it ;  but  void  of  warmth, 
unction,  and  popular  adaptedness. 

In  all  this,  so  far  as  we  are  chargeable  as  a  denomination, 
it  has  originated  in  imitating  others.  And  as  imitations 
are  never  natural,  and  generally  extreme  and  exaggerated, 
so  has  it  prove?l  here.  That  it  may  have  been  a  necessary 
step  in  our  mtellectual  progress  as  a  denomination,  we 
would  not  deny ;  that  it  will  enable  us  hereafter  to  en- 
graft a  more  comprehensive  adaptedness  to  various  condi- 


384  THE     FUTURE. 

tions  of  the  world  and  of  the  Church,  is  probable.  It  will 
certainly  allow  a  greater  range  and  variety,  accordmg  to 
the  gifts  both  of  sjieakers  and  of  hearers,  and  form  the 
basis  of  a  more  extended  culture  and  universal  usefulness. 
But  it  is  not  less  true  that  all  this  is  but  the  mark  of  sec- 
ond-rate culture,  even  intellectually.  As  we  advance  fur- 
ther we  shall  no  doubt  come  round  again  to  a  greater  love 
of  simplicity  in  all  our  ministratiens. 

Then  heUever''s  baptism,  both  in  preaching  and  in  prac- 
tice, will  occupy  a  more  natural  prominence  in  the  minis- 
trations of  the  sanctuary,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  agam  in 
redeemmg  love,  as  origmally  at  creation,  be  found  movmg 
"  upon  the  face  of  the  waters." 

When,  as  Baptists,  we  have  better  studied  our  own 
principles,  and  learned  wherem  our  true  strength  lieth,  even 
in  simplicity  and  sincerity,  then  will  self-respect  and  humility 
be  always  combuaed  by  us ;  an  earnest  desire  for  the  appro- 
bation of  God,  and  less  care  for  that  of  man. 

Then  all  the  varied  experiences  of  God's  grace  will  be 
wisely  appropriated,  and  contribute  to  our  future  progress. 
Then  shall  we  elevate  large  masses  of  the  community,  rising 
steadily  with  them  liighcr  and  higher  in  mtelligence  and  in 
virtue.  For  while  a  religion  too  exclusively  intellectual  in 
its  sympathies  renders  the  soul  cold  and  sterile,  that  of 
earnest  spiritual  life  will  impart  a  genial  warmth  to  the  com- 
munity and  to  each  member,  in  intellect,  heart,  and  life ; 
"that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly  furnished 
to  every  good  work." 


APPENDIX. 


17 


APPENDICES. 


APPENDIX   A.    Page  133. 


STATISTICS    SHOAVIXG   THE   DECLINE    OF   INFAJST   BAPTISM. 

The  following  tables  are  compiled  from  the  reports  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  and  sufficient  for  my  present  purpose.  I  found  it 
impossible  to  obtain  a  complete  set  of  these  except  in  the  later 
years,  but  the  calculations  were  made  with  the  most  extensive 
tables  before  me  now  probably  to  be  found. 


Date. 

IS 

Added  on 
Examina- 
tion. 

II 

T3 

cq 

Presbyterian  Church  (0.  S.) 
1827 

135,285 
146,308 
162,816 
217,348 
233,580 
219,126 
220,557 
177,665 
128,043 
219.263 
225,404 

100,850 
140,452 

36,597 

12,938 
15,095 
14,846 
34,160 
23,. 546 
11,512 
11,580 
9,562 
6,377 
11,846 
13,433 

4,691 
6,174 

1,759 

10,229 
10,790 
12.171 
13,246 
14,035 
11,089 
11,697 
10,164 
7,712 
11,644 
12,041 

4,426 
4,032 

2,394 

2,965 
3,389 
3,982 
9,650 
6,950 
2,729 
3,031 
2,692 
1.644 
2,942 
3,597 

1,630 
1,715 

350 

13  194 

1828 

14  179 

1829 

16,153 

22.896 

1832 

1833 

21,820 
13  818 

1836 

1837 

14,728 
12,856 

18o8 

1839 

9,356 
14  586 

1853 

1854 

15638 

Presbyterian  Church  (N.  S.) 
1838 

6  056 

1853 

5  747 

Reformed  Dutch  Church. 
1853 

2,744 

388  "the    way    of    life." 

APPENDIX  B.    Page  137. 

"the   WAT    OF    LIFE"    BAPTIST   IN   THEOET. 

If  from  the  statistics  of  the  Presbyterians  we  turn  to  their  lit- 
erature, what  Baptist  can  look  at  such  a  work  as  "  The  Way  of 
Life,"  by  Professor  Hodge  of  Princeton,  published  by  the  Ameri- 
can Sunday-school  Union,  without  surprise  and  pleasure.  In  chap- 
ter eight,  particular!}',  Baptist  views  are  taught  most  clearly.  The 
following  abstract  has  been  put  into  my  hands  by  a  friend.  It  was 
published  some  time  since  in  the  "  Christian  Eeflector." 

The  doctrine  "  that  professed  believers  only  are  qualified  sub- 
jects for  baptism"  has  never  been  more  distinctly  stated  than  in 
this  work.  The  positions  "  that  baptism  involves  a  public  profes- 
sion of  the  Gospel,"  and,  "  that  the  sacraments  are  signs  and  seals 
of  spiritual  blessings,  and  consequently  utterly  useless  without 
faith  on  the  part  of  the  recipient,"  are  repeatedly  enforced  and 
illustrated.  The  whole  spirit  and  tenor  of  the  chapter  on  "  the 
Profession  of  Keligion,"  harmonizes  with  the  strong  language  which 
we  shall  proceed  to  quote.  The  first  sentence  in  section  two, 
reads :  "  That  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  whatever  other  im- 
portant ends  they  may  be  intended  to  sei've,  were  appointed  as  a 
mode  of  publicly  professing  our  faith  in  the  Gospel,  is  clearly 
taught  in  the  Bible."  Again,  "When  Christ  commanded  the 
Apostles  to  make  disciples,  baptizing  tliem,  etc.,  he  obviously  in- 
tended that  baptism  should  be  a  badge  of  disci pleship,  or  that  by 
that  rite  his  followers  should  acknowledge  their  relation  to  him." 
Again,  "  The  Scriptures  require  those  who  are  admitted  to  these 
ordinances  to  make  a  profession  of  their  faith  and  repentance." 
To  sustain  this  assertion  he  refers  to  the  baptism  of  the  converts 
on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  of  the  eunuch,  of  Cornelius,  and  of  Paul, 
with  this  concluding  remark.  "Paul  was  a  penitent  believer  be- 
fore his  baptism,  and  thus  in  all  other  cases  when  men  were  bap- 
tized, they  professed  to  be  Christians."     "  Baptism  implies  faith. 


"the    way     of     LIFJi."  389 

If  this  faith  be  wanting,  bcaptism  can  do  ns  no  more  good  than  a 
heartless  confession."  In  a  subsequent  part  of  the  chapter  he  de- 
fends at  length  the  position  that  knowledge  and  piety  are  neces- 
sary qualifications  for  baptism,  or,  in  his  own  words,  "  essential  to 
a  proper  attendance  on  the  sacraments." 

After  proving  from  Scripture  his  second  principal  doctrine,  that 
"  the  sacraments  are  signs  and  seals  of  spiritual  blessings,"  he  con- 
cludes, "  If,  however,  the  sacraments  are  seals  on  the  part  of  God, 
the  reception  of  them  implies  a  voluntary  engagement  on  the  part 
of  the  Christian,  to  devote  himself  to  the  service  of  Christ."  "  To 
be  baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  im- 
plies a  voluntary  dedication  of  ourselves  to  God  as  our  Father,  Re- 
deemer, and  Sanctifier."  He  compares  baptism  to  the  oath  by 
which  a  soldier  consecrates  himself  to  military  service ;  again  to  a 
deed ;  to  the  marriage  ceremony,  and  the  ceremony  of  inaugura- 
tion, all  implying  the  voluntary  action  of  the  parties  interested. 

In  answering  the  important  question,  what  good  do  these  ordi- 
nances accomplish,  he  describes  beautifully  the  invigorating,  reno- 
vating power  which  baptism  possesses  "  when  the  Christian,  in 
the  exercise  of  faith,  sees  in  the  water  of  baptism  the  lively  em- 
blem of  the  purifj'ing  influence  of  the  blood  and  spirit  of  Christ." 
"The  Scriptures  teach  that  tlie  sacraments  are  thus  efficacious,  not 
to  every  recipient,  but  to  the  behever,"  and  "  to  neither  rite  is  any 
value  ascribed  apart  from  the  spiritual  change  which  they  are  ap- 
pointed to  represent."  The  same  sentiments  are  repeated  in  a 
variety  of  expressions  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  quote,  as  eacli  one 
can  read  the  work  and  thus  verify  our  declaration  that  it  advo- 
cates Baptist  views.  Not  a  single  qualifying  remark  is  introduced 
to  break  the  force  of  the  statements  above  quoted,  but  on  tlie  con- 
trary the  Professor  closes  every  avenue  of  escape  by  saying, 
"When  in  human  governments  the  laws  prescribe  a  particular 
mode  in  which  we  are  to  acknowledge  allegiance  to  our  country, 
it  is  not  competent  for  us  to  neglect  that  mode,  nor  have  we  a 
right  to  adopt  a  different  method  of  acknowledgment,  or  to  sutler 
our  allegiance  to  be  inferred  from  our  r  »nduct.     And  if  Christ  has 


390  THE     DATIVE 

prescribed  a  particular  way  in  -which  lie  will  be  acknowledged  by 
Lis  followers,  intelligently  and  willfully  to  refuse  obedience  to  His 
command  is  to  renounce  our  allegiance  to  Him,  and  to  forfeit  the 
benefits  of  His  kingdom." 


APPENDIX  C.    Page  158. 

ON   THE   DATIVE   AXD   THE   PKEPOSITIOXS   USED   IN 
CONNECTION  WITH    BumiL,(x). 

Notwithstanding  the  concessions  of  Professor  Robinson,  in  his 
lexicon  (last  edition),  many  still  appear  disposed  to  hold  on  to  Pro- 
fessor Stuart's  view,  and  strongly  affirm  that  in  all  these  cases, 
even  where  the  preposition  kv  occurs,  "  the  manner  of  the  action 
is  no  further  designated  than  the  word  jSarrri^ij  implies  it."^  Let 
us  therefore  more  closely  examine  the  rule  which  Professor  Stuart 
attempts  to  lay  down,  and  by  which  he  would  justify  so  singular 
an  assertion  in  connection  with  his  own  admissions.  Those  who 
do  this  will  never  be  disposed  to  adopt  such  a  statement. 

"When  the  genitive  or  dative  is  used  after  the  verb,  either  with 
or  without  a  preposition,  it  does  not  designate  the  manner  of  the 
baptism,  but  only  the  kind  of  element  by  which  this  baptism  was 
effected.  And  further  still,  the  connection  shows  that  the  prepo- 
sition, and  in  fine  the  whole  construction,  is  no  more  decisive  than 
the  verb  alone." 

But  is  this  true?  He  says  "it  results  from  the  nature  of  the 
genitive  and  dative  cases,  and  the  prepositions  with  which  they  are 
connected  in  all  the  constructions  now  in  question.  To  this,"  he 
continues,  "  I  make  the  appeal,  and  those  who  know  enough  of  the 
laws  of  syntax  and  idiom  in  Greek  to  be  qualified  to  judge,  wnll  be 
able  to  determine  for  themselves,"  etc.'' 

Now  to  this  we  too  make  the  appeal,  both  because  it  can  be 
clearly  shown  that  Professor  Stuart  has  fallen  into  a  serious  error, 

1  Biblical  Repos.,  p.  317.  «  Ibid 


AND     Bum['C,(i),  301 

and  still  more  because  of  the  enormous  and  dangerous  superstruct- 
ure erected  on  this  saudy  basis.  It  is  from  this,  for  instance,  he 
sweepingly  infers  that  (setting  aside  Mark,  i.  9),  "  we  may  say  in  all 
otlier  cases  in  the  New  Testament,  the  mode  of  baptism  is  left  un- 
determined by  the  original  Greek,  so  far  as  the  language  itself  is 
concerned,  unless  it  is  necessarily  hnplied  by  the  word  (SaKri^u ;  for 
in  all  other  cases,  only  the  element  by  which,  not  the  mode  in 
which  baptism  is  performed,  is  designated  by  the  sacred  writers." ' 

We  shall  perhaps  see,  before  we  close,  that  the  word  Panri^u 
necessarily  implies  immersion.  But  we  now  only  contend  that  tliis 
is  its  primary  and  usual  signfication,  so  that  there  is  always  a 
probability  of  such  being  the  case,  until  an  exception  is  shown. 
All  this  Professor  Stuart  cheerfully  concedes;  but  it  being  granted, 
it  is  quite  a  serious  grammatical  blunder  to  state  that  in  "  all  cases" 
the  dative,  even  the  dative  and  the  preposition  iv  together,  leave 
the  mode  as  undetermined  as  they  found  it;  that  they  "wo  fu7'- 
ther  designate  the  manner  of  the  action"  than  the  verb  (ianTi^u 
alone.  On  the  contrary,'  as  Campbell  has  shown,  the  whole  to- 
gether make  up  a  construction  that  renders  the  meaning  of  the 
verb  irresistible,  being  such  a  "  phraseology"  as  is  never  used  where 
sprinkling  or  pouring  alone  are  indicated.'^ 

The  dative  is,  as  Kiihner  remarks  in  his  Grammar,  "  the  where- 
case,"  and  hence  designates  as  a  local  object  "  the  place  in  (by, 
near,  at)  which  an  action  occurs."  Usually  in  prose  a  preposition 
is  added  so  as  to  designate  the  sense  more  precisely.  Where  it  is 
not,  however,  the  above  is  the  exact  force  of  the  dative  alone.^ 
In  this  case  the  natural  signification  of  the  verb  must  indicate 
which  of  these  senses  the  dative  has.  And  it  is  sometimes  capable 
of  doing  this  very  precisely. 

Besides  the  idea  of  the  "w/^er<?,"  that  of  '•'•approach^''''  lies  at  the 
basis  of  this  case,  asButtman  has  shown,  and  further,  the  dative  will 
not  only  take  you  to  the  place,  but  also  point  out  to  you  the  in- 
strument with  or  ly  which  the  action  of  the  verb  is  accomplished, 

*  Page  317.  '  Notes  on  Matthew,  iii.  11. 

»  §  282  (3),  and  283  A. 


392  THE     DATIVE     AXD    ButitI'Qu). 

and  beyond  all  this  it  will  indicate  to  j'ou,  sometimes  very  dis- 
tinctlj'^,  the  manner  in  which  the  instrument  is  applied.  It  will 
point  out  that  an  action  occurred  not  only  ly  these  means,  but  in 
this  manner.^  What  is  very  singular  is,  that  while  Professor 
Stuart  seems  inclined  to  deny  from  the  nature  of  the  dative  that 
it  can  here  indicate  manner,  he  says  in  his  Grammar  that  it  is  in 
its  nature  to  do  this  very  thing:  "The  manner  in  which  any  thing 
is  done  is  designated  by  the  dative."  °  Such,  then,  is  the  power 
of  the  dative  alone,  without  the  assistance  of  any  preposition  to 
make  it  more  exact.  As  an  illustration  of  this  precision  of  power, 
in  connection  with  just  these  verbs,  iSaTrriiu  and  (Sutttu,  what  can 
be  more  complete  than  that  quoted  and  translated  by  Professor 
Stuart,  himself,  from  Aristophanes  Eccles. :  "  They  dip  the  wool  in 
warm  water  (dep/iC))"  Here  we  have  exactly  the  construction  in 
question,  a  dative  without  any  preposition  expressing  the  manner 
of  the  action  mentioned  in  the  verb,  quite  as  clearly  as  if  we 
should  translate  Acts,  xi.  16,  "  John  baptized  in  water" — a  precisely 
similar  construction. 

Perhaps  Professor  Stuart  would  say  that  it  is  not  the  dative  ly 
itself,  but  the  verb  that  designates  the  manner,  in  the  case  from 
Aristophanes.  It  amounts  to  the  same  thing.  The  verb  followed 
by  the  simple  dative  forms  a  construction,  then,  that  may  decisively 
express  the  manner.  "Whether  it  does  so  in  the  New  Testament, 
we  shall  see  presently.  But  Professor  Stuart's  rule,  that  the  da. 
tive  "  in  all  such  cases,"  only  designates  "  the  kind  of  element," 
and  '■'•  nothing  further,''''  is  clearly  an  error,  and  a  very  serious  one 
to  make  in  such  a  case  as  this,  and  upon  which  to  build  such  an 
enormous  inference. 

But  if,  in  a  case  like  this,  the  simple  dative  may  clearly  indicate 
manner,  how  much  more  with  the  preposition  ev,  and  the  following 
verbs  like  /Juttt-u  or  ^anTi^id. 

"  The  fundamental  meaning  of  the  prepositions  appears  in  the 
clearest  manner  jn  indicating  the  relations  oi  space,'''' '  and  we  turn 

*  See  Buttman,  §  133,  1,  3,  1  (2),  Kiilmer,  §  285,  chap.  i.  (3)  {d). 
^  New  Testament  Grammar,  §  106,  3.  '  Kiihner,  286-9. 


FORCE  OF  THE  PREP O SIT!  OXS ,        393 

now  more  specifically  to  Matthew,  iii.  6,  because  here  such  a  rela- 
tion unquestionably  is  found.  Now  the  primary  idea  of  iv  is  that 
of  being  encircled,  surrounded,  enclosed  in,  or  within  a  given 
space.  Liddell  and  Scott,  following  the  great  Passow,  give  as  its 
radical  signification  "  a  being  or  remaining  loithin^  As  compared 
with  etf  and  ^k,  it  stands  between  the  two,  elc;  implying  motion 
into,  and  in  motion  out  of.  This  Robinson  also  shows.  In  the 
first  eight  chapters  of  Matthew,  kv  is  in  our  English  version  trans- 
lated "  in,"  or  "  within,"  sixty-one  times,  "  at,"  once,  and  "  with,"  or 
"wherewith,"  Jive  times.  This  last  includes  Matthew,  iii.  11, 
where  it  is  twice  wrongly  rendered  "  with,"  as  we  shall  see. 
Throughout  the  whole  of  the  New  Testament,  in  which  it  occurs 
nearly  two  thousand  six  hundred  times,  it  is  rendered  "  with" 
one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  times,  or  less  than  one  time  in 
twenty,  and  in  the  greater  number  of  these  cases,  the  distinctive 
sense  of  "  in,"  or  "  within,"  can  be  most  clearly  traced. 

Can  it  then  be  said  with  any  approach  to  correctness,  that  when 
such  a  preposition  is  used  as  in  Matt.  iii.  .6,  after  a  verb  whicli  it  is 
admitted  naturally,  if  not  necessarily  signifies'  '  to  dip,''''  and  before 
the  name  of  a  river,  that  "  the  manner  of  the  action  is  no  further 
designated  ?  "We  have  the  primary  meaning  of  the  preposition  in 
just  that  relation  in  which  its  signification  is  always  the  clearest 
(i.  e.,  as  to  space  or  place)  put  in  on  purpose  to  certify  to  us  that 
the  natural  meanmg  of  the  verb  is  intended  here.  "When  Aris- 
totle says,  "  x\nd_  dipping  it  (fv  uivcp)  in  wine  they  drink  it,"  Pi'o- 
fessor  Stuart  feels  the  force  of  the  preposition  and  acknowledges 
the  necessity  of  just  this  translation,*  So  in  2  Kings,  v.  14,  the 
Sept.  reads  as  Professor  S.  renders  it :  "  Naaman  went  down  and 
plunged  himself  seven  times  into  the  Jordan."  Here,  too,  we 
have  the  same  verb  iSanri^u,  and  the  same  preposition  iv; — in  fact 
precisely  the  same  kind  of  construction  as  Matt.  iii.  6.  Professor 
Eobinson  considers  that  the  preposition  iv  renders  the  sense  in 
Matthew,  iii.  C  as  unequivocal  as  our  English  "  in"  makes  it.'  He 
calls  this  "an  adjunct  of  manner;"  while  Professor  Stuart  declares 

'  Page  316.  «  Lesicon,  iSaTZTiCu,  2  a.  (3. 

17* 


394 


rOECE     OP 


that  in  this  and  all  cases  of  a  similar  construction  "  the  manner  of 
the  action  is  no  further  designated  tJian  the  word  f^ann^u  im- 
plies it."  1  It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  Professor  Stuart  could 
have  deliberately  penned  such  a  sentence.  It  is  true  that  the 
sense  of  all  prepositions  is  greatly  to  be  ascertained  by  their  cor- 
respondence with  the  meaning  of  the  verb.  But  it  were  a  mis- 
take at  variance  witli  every  principle  of  language  to  suppose  that 
they  are  capable  of  adding  nothing  to  its  force  and  clearness.  This 
is,  in  fact,  just  what  they  are  for.  Here  the  usual  sense  of  the 
preposition  corroborates  beyond  all  cavil  the  usual  sense  of  the 
verb.  It  is  more  indicative  of  immersion  than  any  that  could  have 
been  employed  (unless  f/f  should  be  thought  an  exception) ;  a  prep- 
osition which  is  never  used  with  verbs  signifying  to  sprinkle,  but  yet 
is  most  commonly  put  in  connection  with  the  rite  of  baptism.  It 
is  clearly  the  duty  of  every  translator,  then,  to  render  the  prepo- 
sition as  King  James'  version  has  done,  "  m"  the  Jordan,  both  in 
Matt.  iii.  6,  and  the  parallel  passage,  Mark,  i.  5.  Indeed,  all  tians- 
lations  agree  in  this.  The  fact  before  alluded  to,  that  Jesus  was 
confessedly  baptized  at  the  same  time  and  place,  and  by  the  same 
j)urson,  in  this  river,  makes  the  whole  about  as  irresistible  to  the 
interpreter  of  the  language  of  Scripture  as  any  thing  could  make 
it;  and  this  not  in  regard  to  one  or  two  cases,  but  literally  thou- 
sands of  instances,  for  "  There  went  out  unto  him  Jerusalem  and 
all  Judea,  and  all  the  region  round  ahozit  Jordan^  and  were  bap- 
tized of  him  in  Jordan,"  Iv  tQ  'Jopduvrj.^ 

It  is,  therefore,  an  error  involving  many  thousands  of  instances, 
as  shown  by  Campbell  and  Professor  Robinson,  for  Professor  Stu- 
art to  assert  that  "  in  all  other  cases  except  Mark,  i.  9,  the  mode 
of  Baptism  is  left  undetermined  unless  it  is  necessarily  implied  by 
the  word  j3anTlC(j."^ 

But  there  are  other  passages  where  the  same  preposition  tv  also 
occurs,  though  differently  translated  by  our  common  version ;  as 
Matt.  iii.  11.*    I,  indeed,  baptize  jonwith  ^h)  water."    But  here 

1  Page  317.  ^  Matt.  iii.  6.  3  Pago  SIT. 

♦  See  also,  Mark  i.  8,  John,  i.  26,  31,  33. 


TH  K     DATIVE.  395 

the  Douay  version  and  several  others  translate  correctly,  "I 
indeed  baptize  you  in  water."  So  does  the  able  critic  Dr.  Camp- 
bell. Professor  Robinson  gives  the  sense  "i/i  water"  in  all  these 
cases  in  his  Lexicon. 

But  now  in  three  instances,  all  relating  to  John's  baptism,  and 
precisely  parallel  in  sense  to  the  cases  in  Matthew  and  Mark 
above,  rendered  "  in  water,"  Luke,  after  the  verb,  inserts  the  sim- 
ple dative  vSuti  in  Luke,  iii.  16,  Acts,  i.  5  and  xi.  16.  This  is  a 
usage  peculiar,  in  the  New  Testament,  to  this  writer.  It  is  not, 
however,  uncommon  to  good  classic  authors.  Professor  Stuart  has 
cited  a  similar  instance  from  Aristophanes,  as  we  have  seen.  But 
does  he  render  it  "They  dip  the  wool  '■'•ivith  warm  Avater"  Oepfiu'i 
Certainly  not,  but  "  in  warm  water." 

Professor  Robinson,  though  translating  the  parallel  passage ' 
"  in,"  would  render  Luke,  iii.  16,  and  the  similar  cases,  "  with, 
water."  ^  lie  seems  to  have  forgotten  that  what  he  terms  the  da- 
tive of  inslrument  may  also  specify  the  manner.^  Dr.  R.  would 
probably  defend  his  mode  of  rendering,  on  the  ground  that  "he 
as  a  translator^  should  not  be  blamed  for  not  expressing  definitely 
in  a  translation  what  is  indefinite  in  the  original."  *  But  he  thus 
erroneously  supposes  that  the  verb  is  naturally  quite  indefinite  as 
to  mode.  Chiefly,  however,  is  he  in  error  because  in  rendering 
the  preposition  "  witTi'''  he  excludes  the  natural  and  most  probable 
sense  of  the  verb,  and  under  the  plea  of  indefiniteness,  denies  as 
definitely  as  possible  that  to  be  its  meaning  which  in  a  parallel  pass- 
age he  has  adopted,  for  we  never  speak  of  "  immersing  ?ci77i,  water." 

If  Professor  Robinson  were  right  in  this  last  case,  it  would 
clearly  make  it  the  duty  of  the  interpreter  of  Scripture  to  erase  or 
contradict  the  work  of  the  translator;  since  if  Luke,  iii.  16  is 
doubtful.  Matt.  iii.  11  being  clear,  it  would  be  the  duty  of  the  in- 
terpreter to  harmonize  the  two  by  making  the  passage  in  Luke 
conform  to  that  in  Matthew,  and  regarding  the  sense  as  in  both 
cases  clearly  "  in  water." 

'  Matt.  iii.  11.  *  See  Lexicon  iSanric^u,  2  a.  (3. 

*  Kiihner,  §  285,  3.  d.         ■•  Stuart's  Ernesti's  Appendix  on  Translation. 


396  ROMANS,     VI.     4, 

Here,  plainly,  Luke,  iii.  16,  is  the  precise  parallel  in  sense,  abbre- 
viated only  in  form  from  Matt,  iii  11,  but  so  alike  as  to  imply  a 
common  origin.  Hence,  by  the  rule  of  the  obvious  passage  clear- 
ing up  the  doubtful  one,  must  we  consider  this  as  a  case  in  which 
the  preposition  is  to  be  understood,  and  as  omitted  only  by  an  ellip- 
sis which  has  no  right  to  be  considered  any  ambiguity  at  all,  but 
as  an  idiom  common  to  Luke,  to  be  conveyed,  like  all  other  idioms, 
in  clear  and  suitable  terms  in  translation.*  This  Campbell  has 
done  in  his  version  of  Luke,  iii.  16. 

In  fact,  looking  at  the  meaning  of  this  command,  merely  from 
the  expressions  in  themselves  considered,  not  only  is  the  "  prob- 
ability in  favor  of  immersion,"  as  Professor  Stuart  admits,  but  the 
sense  in  every  case  is  obvious  and  certain,  by  only  letting  the  more 
fully  expressed  passages  explain  the  elliptical,  instead  of  attempt- 
ing, as  he  inconsiderately  does,  to  throw  doubts  upon  the  sense  of 
the  clearest  imaginable  cases  by  those  less  fully  stated.* 

However,  it  is  sufficient  here  to  bear  in  mind  this  one  fact ;  that 
whatever  is  the  probable  meaning  of  the  words  of  a  command, 
that  and  that  alone  is  the  command. 


APPENDIX  D.     Page  169. 

ox   ROMANS,  VI.  4,  AND  COLOSSIANS,  II.  12. 

Peofessor  Stuart  maintains  that  in  Eom.  vi.  4,  the  phrase 
"  buried  with  him  by  baptism"  does  not  refer  to  the  mode  of  "  lit- 
eral baptism"  at  all,  but  that  an  internal  moral  burial  to  sin  alone 
is  intended.  His  views  are  to  be  found  in  his  Commentary  on  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and  in  the  Biblical  Repository,  April,  1833, 
particularly  this  last.  He  argues  as  follows :  ^  («.)  "  There  is  here 
an  antithesis,"  i.  e.,  a  hurial  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  resurrection  on 
the  other,  and  that  as  the  resurrection  is  clearlj-  spiritual,  the  burial 

1  Campbell's  Rhetoric,  Book  11.  oh.  vi.  sec.  1,  part  i. 
«  See  p.  315.  3  Page  328. 


AND     COLOSSIANS,     II.      12.  397 

must  be  also.  But  whoever  marks  closely  this  verse,  ■will  find  that 
the  whole  figure  is  carried  out  with  more  than  usual  precision. 
The  antithesis  to  the  spiritual  resurrection  is  the  spiritual  dealh  to 
sin  (verse  3.),  after  which  we  are  iuried  by  baptism,  and  so  the  an- 
tithesis to  the  burial  is,  strictly  speaking,  not  our  resuri-ection,  of 
which  there  is  no  mention  in  verse  4,  but  "  the  walk  in  newness  of 
life."  which  takes  place  correspondingly  aflerward  in  both  cases. 

(5.)  But  Professor  Stuart  argues  that  "nothing  can  be  plainer 
than  that  the  expression  we  are  huried  with  Christ,  Romans,  vi. 
4,  is  equivalent  in  sense  to  we  are  dead  with  him,  verse  8."  '  It  is 
rather  suspicious  for  an  argument  when  he  who  adduces  it  has  to 
begin  by  saying  that  it  is  so  very  plain.  To  us  the  opposite  is  very 
plain.  A  burial  always  embraces  tlie  idea  of  deatli,  hut  also  some- 
thing more.  Or  rather  it  is  the  symbol,  jivroo/,  and  public  acknowl- 
edgment of  a  death,  not  the  death  itself.  So  baptism  is  not  the 
death,  it  is  the  symbol  (verse  5),  and  the  public  acknowledgment 
or  attestation  of  the  death.  And  throughout  these  verses,  the 
death  is  spiritual,  but  the  burial  in  water  is  physical,  attesting  it. 

(c.)  The  last  argument  of  Professor  Stuart  is,  that  he  does  "  not 
think  immersion  a  very  natural  symbol  of  burial,"  and  finds  it  no- 
where else  in  Scripture.  Most  persons  find  it  a  very  striking  sym- 
bol, but  on  this  point  each  reader  can  judge  for  himself.  It  is  used 
here,  and  Col.  ii.  12.  To  us  it  seems  impossible  to  conceive  of  the 
figure  of  burial  twice,  tlius  used  in  reference  to  baptism  without 
an  allusion  to  the  most  obvious  sense  of  the  word  itself.  Why 
else  was  it  introduced  at  all  ? 

It  may  here  be  added  that  Professor  Stuart  runs  the  parallel 
between  this  passage  in  Romans,  and  Colossians,  ii.  12,  all  the  way 
through,  apparently  attempting  to  explain  the  one  passage  by  the 
other.  We  say  apparently,  for  the  real  argument  leads  exactly  the 
other  way,  amounting  in  fact  to  this  :  Colossians,  ii.  12,  is  obscure, 
Romans,  vi.  4,  is  somewhat  parallel,  therefore  we  must  encumber 
the  passage  in  the  Romans,  with  the  difl[iculties  and  obscurities  of 
that  in  Colossians. 

'  Page  329. 


398  COLOSSIANS,     II.     12. 

This  is  exactly  "what  we  have  to  complain  of  all  the  way  through 
Professor  Stuart's  discussion  of  tliis  question,  that  instead  of  fol- 
lowing the  established  rule,  and  interpi-eting  the  difficult  passage 
by  the  clear  one,  all  is  reversed,  and  doubts  are  cast  upon  the 
plainest  passages,  hecm'^e  some  ethers  may  be  less  palpable. 

And  yet  Colossians,  ii.  12,  is  obvious  enough,  even  by  itself. 
"  Buried  with  him  (ev)  baptism  ;  wherein  also  ye  are  risen  with 
Him,  through  faith  of  the  operation  of  God,  who  raised  him  from 
the  dead."  It  takes  no  little  ingenuity  not  to  perceive  a  reference 
in  the  burial  here  to  immersion.  If  there  were  nothing  said  about 
a  resurrection  in  the  second  clause,  Professor  Stuart  himself  would 
feel  no  doubt  about  the  allusion,  and  certainly  here  the  latter 
clause  has  no  right  to  unsettle  the  plain  meaning  of  the  first, 
whatever  doubts  there  may  be  as  to  its  own  construction.  Try 
the  figure  by  the  common  meaning  of  the  word  /3a;rr/fw,  i.  e.,  to 
"  immerse,"  and  then  read  "  we  are  buried  with  him  in  our  immer- 
sion," and  who  can  doubt  that  the  one  alludes  to  the  other.  In 
fact,  if  there  were  a  dozen  significations  all  equally  current,  this 
would  be  enough  to  show  which  we  should  prefer. 

But  what  is  there  to  disturb  this  conviction  in  the  latter  clause, 
"  wherein  also  ye  are  risen  with  him,"  and  this,  if  it  stood  alone 
just  thus,  would  be  a  plain  allusion  to  the  rising  up  again  in  the 
waters  of  baptism ;  the  connectives  '■^  whereiii,  also,"  fixing  the 
sense  beyond  question.  But  here  Professor  Stuart  would  remark 
that  we  have  not  yet  read  the  whole  clause,  "  wherein  also  ye  are 
risen  with  him  through  (<5iu)  faith  of  the  operation  of  God  who 
hath  raised  Mm  from  the  dead^  Here  then  it  is  said  the  resur- 
rection is  declared  to  be  "  through  faith,''''  and  hence  it  must  bo 
the  spiritual  resurrection  of  the  soul,  which  is  alluded  to,  not  of 
the  body  in  water  baptism.  Suppose  it  were  so,  for  a  moment, 
what  then?  "Wliy  then  it  must  be  supposed  to  follow  that  there  is 
in  the  term  "  resurrection,"  here,  no  allusion  to  the  mode  of  bap- 
tism, and  then  as  the  resurrection  is  put  as  the  antithesis  to  the 
"Jiw/rtZ"  of  the  first  clause,  that  also  must  be  understood  as  a 
"  moral  iurial,'"  and  not  a  literal  one  in  water,  so  that  there  is  here 


COLOSSIANS,     II.     12.  399 

no  allusion  at  all  to  the  mode  of  baptism,  and  then  the  language 
of  Romans,  vi.  4,  can,  by  being  esteemed  parallel  to  it,  be  also  ex- 
plained without  supposing  any  reference  to  immersion.  Such  is 
the  only  process  by  which  Professor  Stuai't  would  explain  the  allu- 
sion to  immersion  out  of  these  passages.  "An  ever-widening  spiral 
ergo  from  the  narrow  aperture  of  a  single  text."  Though  who  does 
not  see  a  want  of  conclusiveness  in  every  step  of  this  long  chain, 
by  which  to  draw  immersion  away  from  baptism  ?  But  it  is  certain 
that  the  usual  rendering  of  the  connectives  of  the  second  clause, 
"  wherein  also,''^  {ev  o  /cat),  can  be  set  aside,  indicates  that  we  are 
raised  up  as  well  as  buried  "  in  laptism"  even  if  by  a  mode  of 
speaking  common  with  St.  Paul,  we  supposed  a  reference  also  to 
that  spiritual  resurrection  of  which  baptism  is  the  symbol.  This 
would  not  disturb  the  meaning  of  the  first  clause  which  is  so  clear, 
or  the  sense  might  be  regarded  as  elliptically  expressed,  and  fully 
written  out  thus:  "Buried  with  Him  in  baptism,  in  which  rite  also 
ye  have  been  raised  up  with  him  symbolically  from  the  water,  even 
as  ye  were  ti'uly  raised  up  from  spiritual  death,  through  faith  of  the 
operation  of  God,"  etc.  But  why  should  we  not  regard  faith  to 
be  here  represented  by  a  carrying  out  of  the  figure  as  a  spiritual 
arm  that  supports  us  unseen  through  the  water,  and  raises  us  up 
again.  Certain  it  is  that  we  are  here  expressly  said  to  be  raised 
up  m  iaptism,  if  we  give  iv  w  the  usual  interpretation. 

To  obviate  this,  Professor  Stuart  introduces  a  different  transla- 
lation,  rendei-ing  it  '■'•icith  wlioni  also  ye  had  been  raised  up  by 
faith."  etc.  This  makes  the  i:v  S  refer  to  Christ,  and  not  to  the 
baptism.  This  is  a  possible  rendering,  but  not  the  natural  one. 
The  Syriac,  which  must  have  great  weight  in  a  question  of  this 
kind,  translates  the  passage,  "  Ye  have  been  buried  with  Him  by 
baptism,  and  by  it  ye  have  risen  with  Him,  while  ye  believed  in 
the  power  of  God  who  raised  Him  from  the  dead."  Macknight 
renders  it  "in  which,  i.  e.  baptism,  ye  also  are  raised  with  Him." 
Conybeare  gives  the  sense  '•'■  lohercinP  Otherwise,  indeed,  the 
correspondence  between  the  two  antithetical  clauses  of  the  figure 
is  damaged,  the  burial  being  in  the  baptism,  and  the  resurrection 


400  ROMANS,     VI.     4. 

in  the  Saviour.  In  fact,  apart  from  the  baptismal  question,  there 
is  not  a  single  reason  in  favor  of  this  translation,  but  all  are 
against  it. 

Suppose,  however,  Professor  Stuart's  rendering  to  be  adopted, 
and  it  were  granted  that  the  resurrection  is  expressly  in  Christ,  by- 
faith  alone,  and  refers  not  in  any  shape  to  baptism,  then  it  will  be 
found  that  the  chief  ground  on  which  he  builds  his  whole  hy- 
pothesis of  there  being  no  allusion  to  immersion,  in  Romans,  vi. 
4,  is  cut  away.  For  that  ground  was  that  we  must  suppose  a 
perfect  antithesis  between  the  burial  and  the  resurrection.  But 
by  the  new  translation  of  Oolossiaus,  ii.  12,  it  is  not  so,  for  accord- 
ing to  it,  the  death  is  in  some  way  by  the  means  of  {h)  the  physi- 
cal or  literal  act  of  ourselves  in  baptism,  but  the  resurrection  by 
means  of  {iv)  the  spiritual  work  of  Christ  upon  our  hearts.  This 
is  not  to  be  got  rid  of  by  any  signification  we  give  to  the  prepo- 
sition £v,  as  applied  to  the  Inirial,  for  the  noun  remains  the  same, 
lilerul  baptism.  But  if  it  be  said  that  the  literal  act  of  baptism 
really  embraces  a  7noral  act  or  vow,  subjecting  the  soul  to  Christ, 
as  well  as  a  physical  act,  subjecting  the  body  to  the  water,  and 
that  it  may  be  in  allusion  to  the  moral,  and  not  the  physical  act 
of  baptism ;  still  the  antithesis  would  then  be  incomplete  as  ever, 
for  it  would  be  a  moral  burial  by  the  choice  of  the  candidate, 
while  the  resurrection  would  be  a  spiritual  resurrection  by  that 
prior  act  of  the  Divine  mind,  which  is  the  cause,  and  therefore  not 
the  antithesis  of  the  vow  or  moral  burial  in  baptism.  The  term 
baptism,  however,  here  can  not  be  understood  in  any  such  way  as 
to  exclude  the  physical  act,  or  have  other  than  primary  reference 
to  it.  None  can  show  indeed  that  there  is  here  reference  to  any 
thing  beside  the  physical  act.  Whatever  remoteness  as  to  means 
might  be  grounded  upon  the  preposition  kv  (as  possibly  meaning  «;), 
in  Colofsians,  ii.  12,  by  contrast  makes  the  sense  of  Romans,  vi.  4, 
the  stronger,  for  there  instead  of  h,  vfQ  have  6id,  "  we  are  buried 
with  him  through  baptism  into  death." 

No  more  complete  proof  is  needed  of  the  utter  impropriety  of 
Professor  Stuart's  interpretation  of  this  passage,  than  the  difficulty 


OPEN    COMMUM'ION.  401 

which  every  reader  must  and  does  experience  in  realizing  the  Pro- 
fessor's meaning  in  his  own  mind,  oven  after  he  has  translated  it 
after  his  own  fashion.  We  have  been  buried  with  Christ  "  hy  or  at 
baptism."  To  turn  our  eyes  perforce  away  from  the  most  obvious 
reference  of  "  baptism,"  here,  for  the  sake  of  a  more  abstract  and 
remote  idea,  i.  e.,  that  at  the  time  of  our  baptism  we  made  a 
vow  to  be  spiritually  dead  and  buried  to  sin,  seems  like  a  man 
from  prejudice  shutting  his  eyes  so  as  not  to  see  immersion. 

Nothing  surely  can  be  more  plain,  therefore,  than  the  allusion 
here  to  immersion.  Tliis  is  shown  as  well  by  the  unanimity  of 
ancient,  as  modern  critics. 


APPENDIX  E.    Page  310. 

THE   MISCONCEPTIOKS    OF   OPEN   COMMUNION. 

The  advocacy  of  open  communion,  generally  arises  from  a  series 
of  misconceptions,  which  only  need  to  be  pointed  out  to  be  aban- 
doned. It  is  commonly  supposed  that  by  failing  to  invite  any  per- 
son to  unite  with  us  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  we  say  in  effect  that  he 
is  no  Christian.  This  arises  from  the  ancient  error  which  is  the 
basis  of  Popery,  le.,  confounding  the  terms  of  membei'ship  in  visible 
churches,  and  in  the  invisible  church,  baptism,  and  regeneration. 
Sometimes  our  opponents  seem  actually  to  suppose  that  we  do 
not  believe,  or  at  least,  have  some  doubt,  if  persons  can  be  saved 
without  baptism — and  that  we  do  not  administer  the  Lord's 
Supper  where  we  deny  the  sufficiency  of  the  baptism  on  this  ac- 
count. 

But  in  fact,  our  principles  essentially  involve  the  exact  opposite 
of  this.  "We  never  baptize  ivaj  until  after  the  candidates  have 
made  a  credible  profession  of  Christian  faith,  the  forgiveness  of 
sins,  and  a  regenerate  heart.  It  is  impossible  for  us,  therefore,  to 
suppose  that  the  outward  act  of  baptism  is  essential  to  the  recep- 
tion of  these  blessings.     Infant  baptism  can  only  be  immediately 


402  MISCONCEPTIONS     INVOLVED 

useful  to  the  child  by  an  oinis  operatum^  and  must  naturally  favoi 
the  idea  of  its  influencing  salvation.  But  that  of  adults  upon  a 
ci-edible  profession  of  faith  cuts  at  the  root  of  any  such  view. 
Robert  Hall,  therefore,  in  his  letter  to  a  clergyman  of  Cambridge, 
wrote:  "  Our  sentiments  upon  the  baptismal  rite  exempt  us  from 
any  temptation  to  lay  undue  stress  upon  it.  We  consider  it  merely 
as  the  symbol  of  a  Christian  profession,  while  you  profess  to 
believe  it  regenerates  the  partaker  and  makes  him  a  child  of 
God."i 

It  is  true  that  in  common  with  all  other  evangelical  Christians, 
'fie  hold  that  the  disposition  to  submit  to  whatever  is  clearly  and 
deliberately  perceived  to  be  the  will  of  God  on  every  subject,  is 
essential  to  saving  piety,  and,  therefore,  to  our  salvation.  All 
Christians  know  that  just  at  the  turning  point  of  conversion,  trifling 
with  conscience  in  little  things,  may  and  does  produce  the  most 
fearful  eflfects  on  spiritual  character.  But  beyond  this  which  oth- 
ers would  admit  as  cheerfully  as  themselves,  it  is  from  no  suspicion 
of  the  sincere  piety  of  their  Pedobaptist  brethren  that  Baptists 
decline  to  unite  with  them  in  the  celebration  of  the  eucharist. 
Were  any  of  these  to  present  themselves  and  be  received  as  candi- 
dates for  baptism  by  one  of  our  Churches,  yet  if  any  circumstance 
prevented  their  receiving  that  ordinance  before  the  next  commu- 
nion, tliey  would  not  participate,  simply  because  our  principles  of 
membership  do  not  recognize  any  persons  as  members  of  our 
churches  until  after  baptisna,  although  we  always  recognize  their 
Christian  character  Tjefore. 

It  is  an  error  to  suppose  the  Lord's  Supper  an  ordinance  to  be 
administered  simply  on  the  principle  of  including  all  that  we  sup- 
pose Christ  will  at  least  include  in  His  kingdom  of  glory  and  no 
others;  to  suppose  the  terms  of  membership  in  each  true  visible 
Church  of  Christ  to  be  the  same  precisely  as  those  of  the  great 
Universal  Church  which  is  invisible,  Avhether  they  unite  them- 
selves to  any  visible  Church  or  not.  Yet  this  is  the  main  pivot  of 
Robert  Hall's  whole  argument.     He  says,  over  and  again,  taking 

1  Works,  vol.  4,  p.  C36. 


IN     OPEN    COMMUNION.  403 

for  granted,  indeed,  rather  than  attempting  to  prove  it,  that  the  Uni- 
Tersal  Churcli  "  differs  from  a  particular  assembly  of  Christians  only 
as  the  whole  differs  from  a  part."  It  might  as  reasonably  be  said 
that  a  family  differs  from  a  nation  "  onJif  as  a  part  differs  from 
the  whole.  A  nation  is  a  larger  body,  it  is  true,  and  it  embraces 
many  families,  but  does  it,  therefore,  follow  that  the  constitution 
of  the  family  circle  is  and  ought  to  be  identical  with  that  of  the 
State,  or  that  every  individual  or  family  residing  in  the  State  is 
entitled  to  vote,  whether  aliens  or  not,  and  further  that  every  per- 
son who  might  be  entitled  to  the  ])rivileges  of  citizenship  should, 
therefore,  have  a  right  to  be  considered  at  all  times,  and  as  long  as 
he  pleased,  a  member  of  any  family  ] 

The  terms  of  membership  in  the  two  bodies,  though  harmonious 
in  their  general  principles,  are  radically  distinct  in  this  respect  at 
least,  that  the  Universal  Church,  is,  while  on  earth,  an  invisible 
body.  It  is  composed  of  all  those  who  have  faith  in  Christ, 
whether  they  have  professed  that  faith  by  joining  a  Church,  or, 
like  the  dying  thief,  have  not.  But  some  kind  of  credible  'profes- 
sion of  faith  must  be  necessary  to  visible  Church  membership. 
And  further,  as  we  do  not  read  the  heart,  the  actual  possession  of 
faith  can  not  always  be  requisite  to  visible  membership,  since  it 
can  not  be  determined.  Hence,  all  visible  churches  contain  some 
members  who  do  not  belong  to  the  invisible  communion. 

Neander  illustrates  the  distinction,  "John  describes  an  inward 
community,  the  assemblage  of  those  who  stand  in  communion  with 
the  Kedeemer,  and  which  embraces  the  whole  development  of  the 
divine  life  among  mankind ;  and  an  outicard  community  of  believ- 
ers, which  it  is  possible  for  those  to  join  who  have  no  part  in  the 
former.  *  *  *  We  find  here  as  in  St.  Paul's  writings,  the  dis- 
tinction of  the  visible  and  the  invisible  Church."  * 

The  visible  churches  are  also  independent  bodies,  just  as  all  the 
families  in  a  community  are  independent  in  their  household  ar- 
rangements. Hence,  it  does  not  follow  that  because  an  individual 
is  entitled  to  enjoy  the  privileges  of  a  home  in  his  own  family,  he 
1  Planting  and  Training,  book  vi.  chap.  4,  pp.  320,  321. 


404  MISTAKE     AS     TO 

is,  tlierefore,  at  liberty  to  claim  all  the  same  prerogatives  in  any 
other,  as  he  may  see  fit  to  demand  tliem.  So  must  it  ever  be, 
measurably,  in  well  regulated  Christian  Churches. 

The  Lord's  Supper  is  a  symbol  of  this  among  other  things — our 
union  with  those  with  whom  we  celebrate  it  in  visible  church  rela- 
tions. Indeed,  all  ordinances  belong,  not  to  the  invisible  Church, 
as  such,  but  are  committed  to  the  visible  Churches  of  Christ. 

Unbaptized  persons  are  not  invited  to  join  with  us  in  the  Lord's 
Supper  simply  because  they  do  not  unite  with  us,  in  their  ideas 
of  visible  Church  membership,  that  is  in  regard  to  ordinances,  the 
very  subjects  committed  to  Church  custody.  The  articles  of 
faith  in  every  Pedobaptist  Church,  by  upholding  and  requiring  in- 
fant baptism  do,  in  fact,  the  same  thing.  But  this  never  was  meant 
to  indicate,  and  it  never  can,  that  all  others  are  not  true  mem- 
bers of  the  invisible  Church. 

Another  mistake  often  made  is,  that  we  are  supposed,  at  least, 
to  "  unchurch"  all  other  denominations,  or  say  in  eflfect  that  we  do 
not  consider  them  true  visible  Churches  of  Christ.  But  it  is  one 
of  the  great  advantages  of  our  practice  that  it  delivers  us  from 
the  impossible  and  vain  task  of  deciding  what,  in  the  judgment  of 
the  great  King,  are,  and  what  are  not  true  visible  Churches. 
"We  do  not  profess  to  invite  all  that  are  members  of  what  we  be- 
lieve to  be  such  bodies  to  our  communion  tables.  Those  who 
do,  have  virtually  to  make  out  a  list,  and  by  excluding  some 
denominations,  as  the  Eoman  Catholics,  or  Greek  Church,  and  in- 
cluding others,  such  as  Episcopalians,  assume  a  prerogative  which 
in  His  alone  "  whose  eyes  are  as  a  flame  of  fire,"  and  "  who  walketh 
in  the  midst  of  the  seven  golden  candlesticks." 

But  regarding  the  Lord's  Supper  as  we  do,  to  be  an  ordinance 
committed  in  chai'ge  to  each  j^articular  Church,  as  such,  just  as 
the  Passover  was  originally  committed  to  each  fjimily  to  cele- 
brate, while  all  were  commanded  to  keep  it,  so  we  only  invite  those 
to  unite  with  us  on  such  occasions  as  either  are  members  of  our 
particular  churches,  or  who  may,  in  fact,  be  so  considered  for 
the  time  being,     A  man  may  be  a  conscientious  and  sincei-ely 


UNCUURCniNG     OTHERS.  405 

piou9  Roman  Catholic,  or  N'estoriaa,  or  member  of  the  CrL-ek 
Church;  and  we  should  be  sorry  by  any  act  of  ours  in  refusing 
to  unite  with  him  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  to  deny  that  he  could 
be  a  Christian,  or  seem  to  assert  his  Church  to  be  so  corrupt 
that  no  good  man  could  belong  to  it,  and  only  more  sorry  by  unit- 
ing with  him  to  endorse  the  Roman  Catholic  or  Universalist  sys- 
tems. There  are  many  matters  about  which  a  Churcli  of  Clirist, 
as  such,  is  not  called  upon  to  pronounce  any  opinion.  Where 
a  person  is  baptized  upon  a  credible  profession  of  his  personal 
faith,  his  position  is  clear.  As  the  member  of  a  body  with  a  con- 
stitution perfectly  analogous  with  every  other  Baptist  Church,  if 
temporarily  sojourning  with  any  of  our  churches  he  may  consist- 
ently, if  all  see  fit,  bo  regarded  as  a  member  for  the  time  being, 
and  as  such,  receive  the  Lord's  Supper.  But  without  baptism  he 
could  not  join  any  Baptist  Church.  To  certify  him,  therefore,  to 
the  world  as  such  would  be  to  profess  what  is  not  true.  But  if  we 
admitted  some  without  a  valid  baptism,  on  the  ground  of  personal 
piety  when  we  declined  to  receive  others,  we  should  thus  deny  the 
pretensions  to  godliness  of  all  we  declined  to  receive.  "We  may 
esteem  persons  as  Christians,  or  some  may  so  regard  them,  and 
others  may  not ;  their  conversation  or  deportment  may  justly  sat- 
isfy individuals,  but  union  with  some  Christian  Church  that  re- 
quires what  we  require — a  valid  baptism  as  a  public  profession  of 
personal  piety  is  but  a  proper  antecedent  to  being  recognized  by  us 
in  a  matter  involving  church  relations.  Otherwise,  to  accommo- 
date the  ceremonial  eccentricities  of  individuals,  we  must  pour  con- 
tempt upon  the  Christian  character  of  millions. 

It  is  with  us  in  this  matter  as  voting  is  in  relation  to  citizenship, 
A  foreigner  might  live  in  this  country  many  years,  and  make  it  his 
home.  He  might  pay  his  share  of  the  taxes,  enjoy  the  protection 
of  its  laws,  and  from  an  honest  preference  for  its  institutions  have 
transferred  to  it  the  allegiance  of  his  heart  and  his  affections.  But 
if  from  neglect  or  mistake  he  had  not  been  through  the  forms  of 
naturalization,  or  any  other  forms  necessary  to  entitle  him  to  vote, 
and  he  should  present  himself  at  the  polls,  although  the  officer 


406  CEREMOXIAL     QUALIFICATIONS 

might  know  him  personally,  and  respect  his  character  and  inten- 
tions and  be  sure  that  he  was  better  qualified,  morally,  than  thou- 
sands, it  would  not  be  right  to  permit  him  to  vote,  and  might 
vitiate  a  whole  election.  By  so  doing  the  only  barrier  would  be 
broken  down  that  prevents  the  inhabitants  of  the  whole  world 
from  overthrowing  the  liberties  of  this  country.  In  all  other 
respects  he  could  enjoy  the  blessings  of  its  institutions.  He 
could  travel  unmolested  where  he  pleased,  be  protected  from 
injury,  engage  in  any  business,  be  received  with  esteem  and  friend- 
ship according  to  his  real  worth  and  character,  but  while  he  ne- 
glected the  forms  of  naturalization  he  must  abstain  from  voting. 
To  enjoy  ceremonial  privileges  there  must  he  ceremonial  qualifica- 
tions. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  deny  that  other  bodies  may  be  true  (though 
irregular)  Churches  of  Christ.  For  one,  the  writer  of  these  pages 
would  frankly  say  that  the  term  "church,"  EKuXrjaia^  signifying 
"congregation,"  or  "an  assembly,  of  men,"  any  body  regularly 
assembling  for  the  worship  of  God,  and  composed  of  persons  making 
a  credible  profession  of  Christian  piety,  may  be,  he  considers,  a 
Christian  Church,  though  very  irregular  and  erroneous  in  its  or- 
ganization and  modes  of  government. 

Hence  there  are  Christian  Churches  of  various  kinds  and  degrees 
of  irregularity,  som6  in  which  the  world  is  so  mixed  uj:),  that  they 
can  barely  be  considered  Christian  Churches  at  all.  Some  that 
call  themselves  Churches,  like  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Greek 
communions,  having  indeed  become  so  corrupt  that  they  stand  like 
old  and  decayed  trees,  all  dead,  except  here  and  there  a  limb  with 
a  few  scattered  leaves  on,  in  whicli  alone  vitality  lingers ;  others, 
again,  fresh  and  green,  richly  laden  with  the  fruits  of  a  healthful  piety. 
It  is  the  duty  of  each  Church  to  take  the  iTew  Testament  for 
its  model,  and  by  these  means  secure  the  greatest  possible  fruitful- 
ness.  Nor  can  any  Baptist  doubt  tliat  the  only  regular  and  primi- 
tive way  is  for  clmrches  to  be  composed  only  of  those  wlio  liave 
received  a  true  baptism  on  a  credible  profession  of  the  Christian 
faith. 


FOR     CEEEMONIAL     PRIVILEGES.  407 

It  will  be  urged,  however,  that  surely  menibersbip  in  an  evan- 
gelical Church  of  another  denomination  ought  to  be  esteemed  suf- 
ficient. 

"We  gladly  admit  that  so  far  as  the  spiritual  qualifications  are 
concerned,  there  are  evangelical  churches  whose  care  in  receiving 
none  but  the  converted  is  at  the  present  time  generally  as  great 
as  our  own  on  the  whole.  But  then  it  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  in  not  one  of  these  denominations  was  it  so  a  hundred  years 
ago ;  and  except  perhaps  among  the  Congregationalists,  this  prin- 
ciple is  not  now  embodied  in  their  confessions,  of  faith.  Only  a  few 
years  ago  we  knew  a  gentleman  who  was  a  regular  communicant 
of  an  orthodox  Congregational  Church  in  New  England,  under 
one  of  the  most  evangelical  of  their  ministers,  and  who  had  been 
for  many  years,  but  did  not  profess,  and  never  had  professed  to 
have  undergone  any  change  of  heart.  He  went  to  the  clergyman 
and  claimed  to  be  admitted,  and  teas  admitted  on  his  baptism  in 
infancy,  according  to  the  theory  defended  by  Dr.  Stoddard.  To 
this  day  the  Presbyterian  confession  of  faith  does  not  render  con- 
version necessary  to  full  Church  membershij).  It  might  at  any 
time  revert,  without  viola,ting  a  letter  of  its  constitution,  to  the  un- 
converted membership  and  ministry  it  had  before  the  Tennents 
arose,  and  common  in  the  iTational  Church  of  Scotland. 

Our  Methodist  brethren  exhort  those  who  avowedly  have  no  ex- 
perimental evidence  of  spiritual  life  to  join  their  classes  and  come 
forward  and  partaTce  of  the  Lord's  Supper  as  a  means  of  grace^  as- 
suring their  hearers  that  they  have  known  many  to  be  regenerated 
at  the  communion-table.  Still  so  far  as  our  Presbyterian,  Congre- 
gational, and  Methodist  brethren  are  concerned,  as  a  whole  we 
believe  that  membership  of  any  of  their  Churches  now  would  be 
in  general  as  credible  an  evidence  of  personal  piety  as  we  could 
desire.  But  this  is  with  them  a  recent  and  changed  phase  of  their 
piety,  and  without  the  conservative  feature  of  believer's  baptism, 
it  might  all  change  back  again  any  day.  The  influence  of  infant 
baptism  tends  that  way  all  the  time,  and  would  unquestionably 
destroy  evangelical  Church  membership,  but  that,  as  we  may  now 


408  COiTMUXION     BASED     OX 

hope,  evangelical  religioa  is  about  to  destroy  it.  Bnt  of  all  the 
Pedobaptist  sects  represented  in  this  country,  and  their  number  is 
not  small,  there  is  not  one  that  as  a  denomination  has  ever  main- 
tained, even  in  theory,  a  converted  Church  membership  for  a  hun- 
dred years  together,  and  hardly  for  fifty  years. 

And  while  we  fully  feel,  and  delight  to  acknowledge  as  far  as 
possible  the  evangelical  character  of  these  denominations  at  pres- 
ent, we  have  no  right  to  undertake,  by  invidious  and  impracticable 
distinctions,  to  decide  what  are  not  evangelical  Christian  churches. 
We  simply  take  the  ground  that  tl\ese  churches,  however  spiritual 
or  otherwise,  are  constituted  without  reference  to  a  valid  baptism, 
that  is  one  on  a  credible  profession  of  personal  faith.  That  they 
are  so  irregular^  in  this  respect,  that  we  should  not  wish  to  be  united 
with  them  ecclesiastically,  as  they  would  not  with  us. 

In  all  cases  the  rule  of  communion  must  be  based  on  the 
visible  Church  membership  of  the  party  invited,  and  not  his  own 
spiritual  character  apart  from  that.  For  instance,  we  are  to  invite 
&  pious  Episcopalian  to  unite  with  us,  it  is  urged,  but  are  we  then 
to  invite  every  member  of  the  Church  of  England,  when  it  is  no- 
torious that  while  it  has  produced  some  of  the  most  excellent 
Christians  upon  earth,  vast  multitudes  of  its  communicants  know 
nothing  of  true  piety,  and  half  of  them  are  characterized  by  the 
most  intelligent  of  their  own  members  "  as  very  visible  rogues  and 
scoundrels,  believing  neither  in  God  nor  devil."  "We  may  doubtless 
find  pious  members  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  but  shall  we  invite 
them  to  unite  witli  us,  and  acknowledge  it  to  be  a  true  and  Divine 
Institution  on  that  account?  The  Presbyterians  have  decided 
that  the  Church  of  Rome  is  no  longer  a  true  Church  now ;  but  that 
it  was  until  the  time  of  the  Reformation.  In  our  view,  this  is  an 
unnecessary,  unprofitable,  and  even  erroneous  decision.  What  is 
called  the  Church  of  Rome  is  in  fact  the  aggregate  of  thousands  of 
churches,  and  some  may  be  living  bodies,  as  others  are  certainly 
dead.  The  Jesuits'  sections  were  in  the  gall  of  bitterness,  wliile 
the  Jansenists  were  probably  living  branches  of  the  true  vine. 
The  candlestick  of  the  Church  in  Rome  itself  may  by  the  Great 


CnURCn     MEMBERSHIP.  409 

Head  have  been  removed  out  of  its  place,  and  its  light  extin- 
giiislied,  however  many  wax  tapers  may  Lave  bnrned  upon  its 
altars.  Its  people  and  priests  may  have  been  shut  up  in  darkness 
to  believe  a  lie,  while  the  Son  of  Man  wa^  holding  "Wicklitte  as  a 
star  in  his  right  hand,  and  walking  in  the  midst  of  liis  little 
cliin-ch  at  Lntterworth,  in  Wales,  trimming  its  lamps,  and  pouring 
oil  upon  its  flame.  Yet  Wickliife  offered  to  defend  his  principles 
at  first  before  the  Pope ;  nor  is  it  possible  among  Pedobaptist 
Churches  to  draw  the  line,  for  the  worst  denominations  will  exhibit 
the  most  pious  individuals  occasionally.  The  corrupt  court  of 
Louis  XIV.,  at  Versailles,  could  boast  of  its  Masillon,  and  the 
Jesuits  have  with  reason  extolled  the  piety  of  Francis  Xavier. 

But  to  receive  every  man  we  esteem  an  experimental  Christian 
witliout  any  regard  to  an  evangelical  Church-membership  and  reg- 
ular profession  would  be,  as  we  have  seen,  like  letting  every  for- 
eigner vote  whom  you  esteem  a  worthy  and  intelligent  man,  with- 
out any  regard  to  the  certificate  of  citizenship. 

It  is  a  mistake  very  commonly  made,  to  suppose  that  Baptists 
are  different  from  other  denominations  in  not  inviting  all  Chris- 
tians, as  such,  to  unite  with  them  on  sacramental  occasions.  This 
is  a  great  error.  They  do,  indeed,  differ  from  them  as  to  baptism, 
but  we  know  of  no  denomination  of  Christians  who  have  ever 
esteemed  it  proper  to  admit  those  whom  they  considered  uu- 
baptized  to  their  communion  table.  Bishop  "White  refused  the 
communion  to  an  evangelical  Quaker.  But  few  of  any  denomina- 
tion would  admit  that  there  could  be  such  a  thing  as  a  visible 
Christian  Church,  in  any  sense  of  the  term,  Avithout  a  true  bap- 
tism. It  is  a  question  with  which  the  present  discussion  has  noth- 
ing to  do  ;  and  it  may  be  admitted  or  denied.  But  certainly  com- 
mon sense  suggests  that  where  ritual  communion  takes  place  in 
respect  to  one  ordinance,  it  ought  in  the  other.  To  say  that 
Pedobaptists  would  admit  the  members  of  Baptist  Churches  to 
their  communion  is  nothing,  for  they  do  not  doubt  the  valid- 
ity of  such  baptism :  Baptists  more  than  doubt  the  validity  of 
theirs.     The  question  is,  would  Pedobaptists  admit  pious  members 

18 


410  COiIMO:N"     MISTAKES. 

of  unbaptized  bodies  to  their  table?  This  they  can  not  do,  at  least 
consistent]}'  with  their  standards. 

In  the  Methodist  Book  of  Discipline,  for  instance,  it  is  expressly- 
enjoined,  "Let  none  bo  received  into  the  Church  until  they  have 

*  *  *  teen  ha'ptized^''  etc'  And  no  person  is  to  be  admitted  to 
the  Lord's  Supper  upon  principles  which  would  exclude  them 
from  the  Church."  The  Presbyterian  Confession  of  faith  declares 
baptism  to  be  a  sacrament  "ybr  the  solemn  admission  of  the  party 
baptized  into  the  tisible  Church.''''^  So  all  the  Congregational  Di- 
vines, and  so  the  symbols  of  every  Reformed  Church,  and  Church 
not  reformed.  All  contain  the  same  truth  without  a  single  excep- 
tion. Dr.  Wall,  in  his  history  of  infant  baptism,  admits  this  in 
the  fullest  terms,  declaring  that  "  no  Cliurch  ever  gave  communion 
to  any  persons  before  they  were  baptized."*  And  even  Robert 
Hall  fully  admits  that  "the  members  of  the  primitive  Church  con- 
sisted of  only  such  as  Avere  baptized."  *  *  *  "  "^e  are  willing 
to  go  a  step  further,"  he  proceeds,  "  and  to  acknowledge  that  he 
who,  convinced  of  the  divine  origin  of  Christianity  by  the  ministry 
of  the  Apostles,  had  refused  to  be  baptized,  would  at  that  period, 
have  been  justly  debarred  from  receiving  the  sacramental  elements ; 

*  *  *  he  would  undoubtedly  have  been  repelled  as  a  contuma- 
cious schismatic."  5 

There  is  one  further  misconception  that  we  wish  to  clear 
away  from  this  question.  Many  persons  are  inclined  to  suppose 
that  because  our  Pedobaptist  brethren  really  believe  that  they 
have  been  baptized,  they  are  entitled  to  be  treated  in  regard  to 
the  communion  as  though  they  had  been.  If  that  were  so  in 
regard  to  this  matter,  it  would  have  to  be  carried  out  into  every 
thing.  Whoever  thought  himself  baptized  would  be,  and  ther^ 
the  whole  matter  would  end.  If  Baptists  admitted  the  validity  of 
infant  sprinkling  as  baptism  at  the  communion  table,  it  would  bo 
difficult  for  them  to  deny  it  at  the  water's  edge.  The  Christian 
world  could  never  believe  them  sincere  in  asserting  such  Baptism 

»  Ch.  iL  sec.  IL  2  Ch.  i.  sec  23.         ^  Conf.  of  Faith,  ch.  xxviil  1. 

*  Part  ii.  ch.  ii.  ^  See  Terms  of  Communion,  part  1.  sec.  iii. 


ROBERT     HALL.  411 

invalid  if  they  admitted  the  sufficiency  of  every  man's  own  opin- 
ion in  the  matter.  Morally  the  prejudices  of  education  may  make 
it  some  excuse  for  not  being  baptized,  but  can  not  alter  the  fact ; 
and  the  question  to  be  discussed  is,  whether  unbaptized  per- 
sons, if  regenerated,  are  entitled  to  unite  with  Baptist  Churclies  in 
this  ordinance,  and  as  members.  Mr.  Noel  states  this  point  with 
clearness :  "  I  believe  each  person  who  has  been  merely  sprinkled 
in  infancy  is  unbaptized,  because  the  external  act  of  baptism  is 
immersion,  and  that  act  is  meant  to  be  a  profession  of  repentance 
and  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  person  sprinkled  in  in- 
fancy has  neither  been  immersed,  nor  has  he  made  through  his 
reception  of  the  sprinkled  water  any  profession  whatever  of  dis- 
ciplesliip;  he  is,  therefore,  wholly  unbaptized."  He  then  proceeds 
to  "advocate  the  right  of  such  persons  to  a  place  at  the  Lord's 
table,  in  Ba2Jtist  Clmrches."  Though  how  it  could  remain  a  Bap- 
tist Church  if  every  unbaptized  believer  had  equally  a  "  right" 
there,  he  does  not  explain.  Robert  Hall  had  the  consistency  to 
give  this  point  up,  and  admit  that  his  system  would  destroy  all  de- 
nomination. 


APPENDIX  F.    Page  361. 

ROBERT   HALL    OX   THE   AMERICAX   WAR. 

"  One  evening  our  conversation  turned  on  the  subject  of  the 
war  with  America,  previously  to  the  acknowledgment  of  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Hall  said,  '  Sir,  that  war  was 
very  unpopular,  and  considered  to  be  very  unrighteous,  by  men  of 
true  liberty  principles.  My  father,  sir,  warmly  advocated  the 
American  cause.  When  I  was  a  little  boy,  he  took  me  to  the 
school  of  Mr.  Ryland,  at  Northampton,  the  father  of  Dr.  Ryland 
of  Bristol.  This  Mr.  Ryland  was  very  eccentric,  and  a  violent 
partisan  of  the  Americans.  It  was  in  the  hottest  period  of  the 
war,  sir,  and  many  persons  were  very  indignant  at  the  conduct  of 


412  ROBERT     HALL     ON     THE 

the  English  government.  That  war,  sir,  was  considered  as  a  crn- 
siide  against  the  liberty  of  the  subject  and  the  rights  of  man. 
The  first  night  we  arrived  at  Northampton  from  Arnsby,  sir,  the 
two  old  gentlemen  (my  father  and  Mr,  Ejiand)  talked  over 
American  politics  until  they  both  became  heated  on  the  same  side 
of  the  question.  At  length  Mr.  Kyland  burst  forth  in  this  man- 
ner: 'Brother  Hall,  I  will  tell  you  what  I  would  do  if  I  were 
General  Washington.'  'Well,'  said  my  father,  'what  would  you 
do?'  'Why,  Brother  Hall,  if  I  were  General  Washington,  I 
would  summon  all  the  American  officers;  they  should  form  a  circle 
around  me,  and  I  would  address  them,  and  we  would  offer  a  liba- 
tion in  our  own  blood,  and  I  would  order  one  of  them  to  bring  a 
lancet  and  a  punch-bowl,  and  he  should  bleed  us  all  one  by  one 
into  this  punch-bowl,  and  I  would  be  the  first  to  bare  my  arm, 
and  when  the  punch-bowl  was  full,  and  we  had  all  been  bled,  I 
would  call  upon  every  man  to  consecrate  himself  to  the  work  by 
dipping  his  sword  into  the  bowl  and  entering  into  a  solemn  cov- 
enant engagement  by  oath  one  to  another,  and  we  would  swear 
by  Him  that  sits  upon  the  throne,  and  liveth  forever  and  ever, 
that  we  would  never  sheath  our  swords  while  there  was  an  English 
soldier  in  arms  remaining  in  America;  and  that  is  what  I  would 
do,  brother  Hall.' 

"Mr.  Hall  said  to  me,  'Only  conceive,  sir,  my  situation,  a  poor 
little  boy  that  had  never  been  out  of  his  mother's  chimney-corner 
before,  sir,  sitting  by  these  two  old  gentlemen,  and  hearing  this 
conversation  about  blood.  Sir,  I  trembled  at  the  idea  of  being  left 
with  such  a  bloody-minded  master.  Why,  sir,  I  began  to  think  he 
would  no  more  mind  bleeding  me  than  he  would  killing  a  fly.  I 
quite  expected  to  be  bled,  sir."  ^ 

He  who,  after  reading  the  above,  peruses  the  following  para- 
graph from  Robert  Hall's  celebrated  sermon  on  "Sentiments  proper 
for  the  Present  Crisis,"  can,  I  think,  have  no  doubt  that  much 
of  the  fire  and  spirit  of  the  latter  was  derived  from  the  scene  he 
liad  thuswitnessed  : 

'  Robert  Hall's  works,  vol.  iv.  pp.  48,  49.     Harper. 


AMERICAN     WAR.  413 

"  Eujoy  that  repose,  illustrious  immortals.  Your  mantle  fell 
"when  you  ascended,  and  thousands,  inflamed  with  your  sph-it,  and 
impatient  to  tread  in  your  steps,  are  ready  to  swear  by  Ilira  that 
sitteth  upon  the  throne,  and  livetli  forever  and  ever,  they  will 
protect  freedom  in  her  last  asylum,  and  never  desert  that  cause 
which  you  sustained  by  your  labors  and  cemented  with  your 
blood.  And  Thou,  sole  Ruler  among  the  children  of  men,  to 
whom  the  shields  of  the  earth  belong,  gird  on  Thy  sword  Thou 
most  Mighty  ;  go  forth  with  our  hosts  in  the  day  of  battle,"  etc' 

1  VoL  i.  p.  110. 


INDB':S. 


A 

"•  PAGE 

Abrahamic  Covenant,  no  proof  of  In- 
fant Baptism,    ....         .    .    90 

Administration  of  Ordinances    com- 
mitted to  Churches,  ....       297 

Administrators  of  Baptism,  .  .  .  103 
jEneas,   Sylvius,   his   account  of  the 

Waldenses, 28 

Aggressive  bodies,  churches  are,    .    .  307 

Auj'ivioi,  its  meaning, 121 

Albigenses,    considered    Baptists  by 

Limborch, 27 

Alexander,  Dr.  Archibald,     .    .    .60,118 

Allegiance  to  Christ, 212 

Alliances,  Evangelical, 305 

Altar,  but  one  to  a  Church,     ....  306 
American,  Christianity,  distinctive  fea- 
tures of, 18,  60,  64 

Independence,  origin  of,      ...  354 
self-government,  origin  of,  .     .     .  352 

Analysis  of  soils, 378 

of  principles, 379 

Ancient  opinions  on  Communion,  .  .  306 
Anthon,  Dr.,  on  Immersion,  ....  138 
Antichrist,  treatise  on,  quoted,  ...  22 
Apocrypha,  its  use  of  BaTTTi'^w,  .     .     .  196 

Apostles,  seldom  baptize, 299 

Apostolic  Con.stitutions, 117 

Arnold  of  Brescia,  history  of,      ...    24 
opposed  to  Church  and  State,  .     .    25 

to  Infant  Baptism, 26 

Attacks  on  Evangelical  Religion,  re- 
cent,      308 

Augusti  on  Immersion, 173 

on  Infant  Baptism, 114 

on  Proselyte  Baptism,      ....    98 

on  the  Catechumens,  .         ...  114 

Augustine,  in  favor  of  force  in  religion,  20 

on  singing, 342 

Authority,  of  the  Church 318 

B 

Backus,  his  history  quoted,  .  .  .53,  54 
Baird,  Dr.,  his  Religion  in  America 

quoted, 69 


Baltimore,  Lord,  and  Liberty  of  Con- 
science,   40,  42 

Basil's,  address  to  the  Catechumens,    1 10 

Baptism,  a  burial,       170,390 

Clinic, 20C 

contains  a  Confession  of  Faith,  .  215 

effects  of, 22t) 

figurative  allusions  to,      ....  lOfi 

its  administrators, 163 

its  pledges, 221 

of  a  Universalist, 219 

of  cups,  etc., 193 

of  the  eunuch, ]GG 

of  the  jailor, 103 

of  the  three  thousand,      .     .     ,     .162 

why  in  rivers, 164 

Baptisms  of  the  New  Testament,  cir- 
cumstances,       159 

Baptismal  Regeneration,  in  Melville's 

Sermons, 76 

in  the  Episcopal  Service,  .     .  75,  332 

in  Wesley's  writings, 70 

the  Lutheran  Confession,  in  re- 
gard to, 74 

Baptist,  Church  Government,     .     .     .345 

influence  in  Virginia, 51 

Church    membership,    voluntary 

and  converted, 346 

theory  of    Church  membership, 

251,  254,256 
views  of  Infant  Dedication,      .    .    86 
views,  approaches  to,  by  other  de- 
nominations,      3S0 

Baptists,  and  American  Independence,  355 

and  Bible  societies 326 

and  Bible  translations,  ....  325 
and  Missionary  movements,  .  .319 
and  political  liberty,  .  .  .  347,  364 
and  rights  of  conscience,     .    .    .  362 

and  the  Bible, 318,  361 

early,  their  principles,  ....  375 
excommunicated  by  the   Browii- 

ists, 268 

in  America,  why  not  mixed  com- 
munion,           290 


416 


PACE 

Baptists  in  favor  of  full  leliErious  liber- 
ty,      33,  35,  54,  55,  50 

"  in  theory,"  Dr.  Bushnell,  .  .  248 
increase  of,  in  Europe,    ....  128 

in  the  United  States, 129 

persecuted  in  New  England,  .  .  53 
persecuted  in  Virginia,     ....    50 

their  chief  danger, 376 

BairTisu,    always  equivalent    to  dip, 

144, 175,199 
always  involves  immersion,    .    .  175 

in  Luke,  xi.  38, 187 

in  the  Apocrypha, 100 

in  the  Septuagint, 195 

its  classic  use,  always,     ....  177 

its  ordinary  use, 141,  150 

its  root  and  primary  sense,  .    .    .  149 

Liddell  <fc  Scott, 149,  177 

Is  ew  Testament  use  of,    .    .    .    .183 

Robinson  on 149,  182 

Stuart  on, 149 

with  dative  and  prepositions,  152,  390 

BdiTTM,  used  figuratively, 17C 

Believer's  baptism,   its    due    promi- 
nence,   384 

Bethesda,  Pool  of,  its  size,     .     .     .     .159 

Bible  and  freedom, 302 

and  the  Church, 309 

contains  the  Constitution  of  the 

Church, 328 

its  eflects, 313 

its  power, 322 

Societies  and  the  Baptists,  .  .  .  320 
to  be  "  reformed"  on  Baptism,  .  271 
Biblical  translations  and  the  Baptists,  325 
Bibliolatry,  charge  of,  considered,  .  327 
Bingham,  his  radical  mistake,  .  .  .  100 
Breach  of  trust,  involved  in  mixed 

communion, 290 

Brownists,  opposed  to  full  religious 

liberty, 31,  34 

Bucket,  the  command  to  dip,      .    .    .  143 
Bunsen,  in  favor  of  a  mixed  Church 

membership  as  to  Baptism,  .     .     10 
his  defense  of  Infant  Baptism,      .  270 

on  Confirmation, 273 

on  Irenaeus, 120 

on  Origen, 123 

on  TertuUian, 121 

On  a  Reconstructive  Reformation,  278 
on  "  reforming"  BibUcal  baptism,  271 
on  the  American  Baptists,     .     .     .  280 

on  the  Catechumens, 115 

on  the  "  fictions"  of  Pedobaptism,     86 
on   the    Priesthood  of  all  Chris- 
tians,      337 


PAGE 

Bunsen,  on  the  rise  of   Infant    Bap-- 

tism, 101,  104 

Bunyan  on  Communion, 288 

Burden  of  proof,  in  regard  to  Bucti^oj,  164 

Burial,  Baptism  a, 396 

Buried  by  Baptism, 171 

Bushnell,  Dr.,  on  Infant  Baptism,  .  .  246 
his  dangerous  tendencies,  .  .  .  261 
his   description   of    the   Baptist 

theory, 251 

his  history  of  Theories,  ....  259 
his  "  Pedobaptist  Theory,"  .  .  252 
his  settlement  in  the  ministry,  .  249 
on  Household  Baptisms,  ....  249 
on  Organic  connection,     .     .    254,  262 

c 

Calvin,  on  Religious  Liberty,    ...    31 
Campbell,  Dr.  George,  on  Immersion,  139 

on  Matt.  iii.  11 158 

Canterbury,  the  Archbishop  of,  finds 

Infant  Baptism  unscriptural,     .  282 

Carey,  William,  and  the  Bible,      .    .  379 

and  Xavier  compared,      ....  324 

Catechumens  all  unbaptized,      .     .     .  109 

Augusti  on, 114 

Basil's  address  to, 110 

Bunsen  on, 115 

Dr.  Henry  of  New  York  on,  .  .112 
in  the  Greek  and  Roman  churches,  116 
in  the  4th  and  5lh  centuries,     .     .113 

Neander  on 116 

often  children, 110 

Catechumenical  system    opposed  to 

Infant  Baptism, lOS 

Centuriators  of  Magdeburg,  ....    28 
Chalmers,  his    argument   for    Infant 

Baptism 117 

in  favor  of  Church  and  State,  .  .  33 
Change  of  feeling  toward  Baptists,  .  16 
Changes  among  Episcopalians.  ...  02 
among  Roman  Catholics,  ...  01 
Chauncey,  Dr.,  and  Religious  Liberty,  52 
China,  Religious  Liberty  in,  ....    59 

Chinese  Insurrection, 321 

Chrysostom, 101 

Church,  a  Physician,- 309 

and  State  opposed  to  freedom,  .  18 
and  State  united  by  Constantine,     20 

and  the  Bible, 309 

authority,  true  views,  ...  .  318 
Government,  Baptist,  ....  345 
History,  as  to  Infant  Baptism.      .    99 

invisible,  and  visible, 403 

Neander's  idea  of,  ....  108 
of  England,  and  Dissenters,         .  383 


417 


PAGE 

Church,  the  origin  of  American  lib  jrty,  357 

the,  what  is  it  ! 236 

universal,  visible, 302 

Churches,  aggressive  bodies,      .    .    .  307 
Baptist,  their  converted  member- 
ship,      346 

Divine  institutions,       239 

guardians  of  Ordinances,     .    .    .  296 

their  power, 352 

Christ,  the  Captain  of  Salvation,    .    .  212 
Christian  Nurture,  Dr.  Bushnell's,    .  246 

Christians,  all  priests, 336 

Christianity,  its  view  of  human  na- 
ture,       269 

Circumcision  and  Infant  Baptism,      .    90 
Circumstances  attending  Baptisms,   .  159 

Classic  use  of  BaTrri^w 177 

Clinic  Baptism, 206 

Coleridge,  adult  Baptism  "  more  scrip- 
tural,"   102 

his  defense  of  Infant  Baptism,      .  234 
his  "  Discretionary  Power,"     .     .  235 
on  Circumcision  and  Baptism,     .    91 
on  Household  Baptism,    ....    94 
on  "  The  Church,"  what  is  it  ?      .  236 
on   the  intolerable   view  of  God 
implied  by  Infant  Baptism,  .  78,  245 
Collection  of  works  on  Baptism,     .     .     15 
Command,  the  meaning  of  a,  how  as- 
certained,       390 

to    Baptize — a   command  to  im- 
merse,        141,200 

Common  Lav/,  of  American  Christian- 
ity,     17 

on  Ratification, 275 

Communion,  ancient  views  of,  .     .     .  306 

Bunsen's  view  of, 2&3 

mixed.  History  of, 288 

inexpedient, 294 

its  consequences,  ....  292 
misconceptions  of,  .  .  .  401 
not  practiced  by  Pedobap- 

tists, 289, 293 

produces    indiff.-rence,    to 
ordinances  ....  310 

unwise, 265 

occasional, 304 

R.  Hall  on, 287,  309,  301 

Comus,  Milton's,  quoted, 143 

Conceded  principles  stated,   ....     15 
Confession  of  the  reformed  Cliurches 

on  Baptismal  Regeneration,      .    74 

Confirmation,  Bunsen  on, 273 

Confirming,  a  nullity, 275 

Congregational  Cliurches  and  a  Con- 
verted Membership 68 

18* 


PAOE 

Congregational  singing, 341 

Congregationalists,  decrease  of  Infants 

Baptized  among, 131 

supported  by  law, 53 

Congress.  Continental  and  Religious 

Liberty, .54 

Provincial,  of  Massachusetts,  .    .    54 
Conscience,  its  rights  the  foundation 

of  all  rights 362 

Constantine,  unites  Church  and  State,    20 
Constitution  of  churches,  changed  by 

Infant  Baptism, 237 

of  the  United  States,  amended  in 
favor  of  Religious  Liberty,    .     .    58 
Contradictory  opinions  of  the   Con- 
gregationalists  as  to  Infant  Bap- 
tism,      77,  247 

Controversy,  points  of,  narrowed 

down, 17 

Controverted  principles  stated,  .  .  .  141 
Converted  Church  Membership,  .  .  00 
a  Baptist  principle,  .  64 
Congregational  view  of.  68 
Knapp's  view  of.  .  .  65 
Jlethodist  view  of,  .  55 
Presbyterian  views  of,  66 
Conybeare  on  Acts  xvi.  33,    ...    .  164 

on  Rom.  vi.  3, 170 

Cornelius  not  Baptized  by  Peter,    .     .  299 

Creed,  Baptismal,       214 

Crisis,  spiritual,  usually  sensible,  .    .  270 
Custody  of  ordinances  committed  to 

churches, .  296 


Danger  of    infants  dying  unbaptized 

taught  by  Infant  Baptism,  74, 78,  245 
Dangerous  tendencies  of   Dr.  Bush- 
nell's theory, 262 

Daniel's  window  open,       228 

Dative,  after  BaKrO^w, 390 

its  nature  and  force, 391 

Kuhneron, 391 

Stuart  on, 390 

Decrease  of  Infant  Baptism  among 

the  Congregationalists,  128, 131 

among  Methodists, 130 

among  the  Presbyterians,    .    .    .133 

in  United  States, 136 

Dip,  its  various  meanings 143 

a  bucket,  meaning  of  the    coui- 

mand, ]43 

a  perfect  equivalent  for  liuTri^'oj,    199 
Dionysius,  Ilelicarnassus,  quoted, .    .  140 


418 


I  X  D  E  X  . 


"  Discretionary  power"  claimed  for 

the  Church,  by  Coleridge,     .     .     .235 

Dissenters,  Englis^h,  their  position,     .  383 

Donatists,  merge  into  the  Waldenses,    21 

the  advocates  of  Religious  Liberty,  20 


Ecclesiasticus,  xxxiv.  25,       ....  198 

Eddystone  Light-House, 231 

Edward's  theory  of  Church  Member- 
ship,       251 

Effects  of  Baptism, 226 

of  Mixed  Communion,      ....  292 

of  the  Bible  on  nations,    ....  313 

els,  and  Professor  Stuart's  rule,  153, 166,  393 

£«, 166 

if,  its  force  in  New  Testament, .    156,  393 
England,  progress  of  Religious  Lib- 
erty in, 58 

Episcopal  Church  and  Baptismal  Re- 
generation,    75 

Church,  its  Constitutions,  .  .  .240 
Episcopalians,  changes  among,  .  .  62 
Ernesti's  rules  of  Interpretation,  146,  148 
Established  Church  in  Virginia,  .  .  49 
Eunuch,  his  baptism, 166 


Faith  and  symbols, 308 

Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost— a  creed,  215 

the.  Faith  in, 214 

Featley,  Dr.,  his  "Dippers  Dipped,"  .     16 
Figurative  allusions  to  Baptism,     .     .  166 
Fogs  lingering  on  Pedobaptist  Church- 
es,      1" 

"  Follow  me," 212 

Fourteen  hundred  volumes  on  Bap- 
tism,      15 

Free  government  and  reUgion,  .     .    .  357 
French  Infidel  and  Baptism,  ....  209 

Revolution,  the  fruits,     ....  360 


Germany,  and  Religious  Liberty,  .    .    59 
Greek  Church,  Catechumens  of,    .    .  116 

H 


FAGS 
.    171 

.  20 
388 
92 

288 


Half  Covenant  System, 260 

Hall.  Robert,  and  Dr.  Ryland,     .    361,409 

on  Communion.  .     .     .      267,  300,  301 
Hellenistic,  use  of  Bjirrt^to,    ....  185 

Henricians, 24 

Henry,  Dr.,  New  York,  on  Catechu- 
mens,   112 

VIII.  on  Religious  Liberty,  ...    31 
Herroos,  on  Baptism, 1"2 


Historical  view  of  Immersion, 
History  of  Religious  Liberty,      .     . 
Hodge,  Dr.,  his  Way  of  Life  Baptist, 

on  Circumcision  and  Baptism, 
Holland,  Baptist  Church  m,   .    .    . 

Holy  Ghost,  the,  faith  in, 217 

Hopkins,  Dr., 247 

Household  Baptisms, 93 

Hughes,  Wm.,  and  the  Bible  Society,  326 

Archbishop,  on  Religious  Liberty,    42 
Hundred  years  ago,  state  of  opinions 

on  Religious  Liberty,    ....    48 

I 

Ide,  Dr.,  quoted, 334 

Illustration  of  a  sailor  commanded  to 

dip  a  bucket, 143,  200 

Illustration  of  Ratifying  Infant  Bap- 
tism,     275 

Immersion  always  required  by  Barr- 

rii^a), 175 

Bishop  Smith  on, 137 

commanded,  illustration,     .    .    .  200 

commanded  in  Baptism,  ....  141 

corroborated  by  circumstances,  .  159 

by  the  prepositions,    .    .    .  152 

Dr.  Arthur  on, 138 

Dr.  Campbell  (George)  on,  .    .    .139 

in  the  Swale, 161 

historical  view  of, 171 

pools  for, 159 

prevailed  till  13th  centurj',  .     .     .173 

Professor  Stuart  on 140 

required  by  John,  iii.  23,  .     .     .     .  165 

Acts,  viii.  28, 165 

1  Cor.  X.  2, 106 

1  Peter,  iii.  20,  21, 167 

Hebrews,  x.  22, 168 

the  Primitive  Baptism,     ....  137 

time  occupied  by, 161 

Importance  of  Baptism, 202 

"  In"  and  "  Into,"  their  force,     .     .    .  162 

Increase  of  the  Baptists, 129 

Independents  opposed  to  full  liberty 

of  conscience, 32 

Indiiference,  the  result  of  mixed  com- 
munion,      310 

Infant  Baptism,  accounted  for,  .  .  .125 
and  the  Catechumenical  system,  108 
and  the  Irish  Church,  .     .     .    •     .111 

and  Unitarianism, 334 

Augustine  on, 124 

Bunsen's  theory  of, 270 

causes  inextricable  confusion,      .    81 
produces  Puseyism, 93 


INDEX, 


419 


PAGE 

Infant  Baptism,  4^  aimers  on,    .    .    .117 
changes    the    Constitution  of   a 

Church, 237 

Church  History  against  it,  .  .  .  99 
Coleridge's  defense  of,     ...    .  234 

Cyprian  on, 124 

decrease  of 128 

Dr.  Alexander  on, 118 

Dr.  Bushnell's  view  of,  ...  .  246 
the  entering  wedge  of  Popery,  .  84 
in  the  4th  and  5th  centuries,    .    .112 

injurious, 233 

Irenajus  on, 119 

its  rise  traced, 117 

"  North  British  Review"  on,  87,89,  233 
not  general  till  6th  century,  .  .114 
not  supported  by  circumcision,  .  90 
by  Household  Baptism,     ....    93 

by  Matt.  xix.  14 95 

Proselyte  Baptism 98 

Origen  on, 122 

rare  at  the  rise  of  the  Donatists,  .    23 

statistics  of, 387 

subverts  Evangelical  Religion,  .  368 
supposes  an  intolerable  view  of 

God, 215 

T'ertuUian  on, 121 

the  support  of  tradition,  ....  316 
unknown   till  middle  of  3d  cen- 
tury,       101 

unknown  to  Justin  Martyr,  .     .     .  119 

unscriptural, 80,  89,  282 

Infant  Communion, 125 

Dedication, 86 

Infidel  and  Baptism, 209 

Interpreter  and  translator,  their   re- 
spective duties, 395 

Intolerable  view  of  God, 245 

Introduction, 13 

Irenoeus  on  Infant  Baptism,   .    .    .    .119 

Bunsen,  etc.,  on, 120 

Neander  on, 119 

Irish  Church  and  Infant  Baptism,  .     .111 


Jacobi  on  Household  Baptisms,      .     .     93 

on  Matt.  xix.  14, 96 

on  1  Cor.  vii.  14, 96 

on  Proselyte  Baptism,  ....  98 
Jefferson  and  the  Baptists,  ....  356 
Jerusalem,  its  pools  of  water,  .  .  .  159 
Jordan,  as  a  place  of  Baptism,     .     .     .  164 

Judith,  xii.  7, 196 

Judson,  Dr.,  and  the  Bible,    .    .    .    .320 
Justification  by  Faith, 330 


Justin  Martyr  ignorant  of  Infant  Bap- 
tism,    ...  ....  119 

on  Baptism,  ....  172 

Ju&.jnian's  law  as  to  Catechumens,    .  Ill 

K 

Keith,  George, 45 

Kingdom  of  Christ, 350 

Napoleon  on, 350 

Kitto's  Biblical  Cyclopsedia,  ....  33 
Knapp  on  a  Converted  Membership,  .  64 
Knox,    John,    opposed    to  Religious 

Liberty, 33 

L 

Law,  Common,  on  Ratification,     .     .  275 

Liberty  of  Conscience,  Bancroft  on,  .    39 

Baptists  in  favor  of  1560,      .    33 

Brownistson, 32 

Calvin's  views  of,   ....     31 

Helwisse  on,        36 

Henry  VIII.  on,      ....     31 
in  New  England  before  tlie 

Revolution, 46 

John  Smith  in  favor  of,  .  .  35 
John  Knox  opposed  to,  .  .  33 
John  Robinson  opposed  to,.  34 
Lord  Baltimore  on,  .  .  40,  42 
Luther's  views  on,  ...  31 
Melanctlionand  all  the  Re- 
formers on, 31 

Presbyterian  views,    .     .  32,  57 
Roger  Williams  on      ...    37 

William  Penn  on 42 

Liberty,  political,  and  the  Baptists,     .  347 

Religious.     (See  Religious  Liberty.) 
Liddell  &  Scott's  Lexicon,     .     .     149.  177 
Light  of  the  world.   Christians   are 

light-houses,         229 

Limborch  considers  Waldenses  and 

Albigenses  Baptists,      ....    27 
Lord's  Supper,   ....  205,  303,  401 

Aoveiv,  Trench  on, 168,  195 

Luke's  omission  of  ev, 158 

Luther  on  Faith  in  Infants,    ....    79 
oppcsed  to  liberty  of  conscience,     31 

M 

Magdeburg,  Centuriators  of,  .     .     .     .28 

Majority  and  its  riglits, 354 

Melville  on  Baptismal  Regeneration,  75 
Mennonites  and  Religious  Liberty,  .  30 
Mercersburg  School, 63 


420 


INDEX, 


PAGE 

Merle  D'AubignS  on  the  Priesthood 

of  all  Christians 336 

Methodists    and    Converted    Church 

Membership, 65 

decreaseof  Infant  Baptism  among,  130 

Milton's  Comus  quoted, 143 

Minorities  and  reserved  rights,  .  .  .354 
Misconceptions,  the    cause  of  open 

communion, 401 

Missions  and  the  Bible, 319 

Roman  Catholic  and  Baptist,    .     .  323 

Missionary  Boards, 343 

Murdoch,  Dr.,  on  Arnold,  as  a  Baptist,  26 
Mutual  approaches  of   Baptists  and 

Pedobaptists, 380 

N 

Naaman, 193 

Nations,  their  sources  of  power,  .  .  34'* 
Neander,  on  Arnold  of  Brescia,      .    .    24 

on  1  Cor.  vii.  14, 96 

on  Cyprian, 124 

on  Household  Baptisms,  ....    94 
on  Invisible  and  Visible  Churches,  403 

on  Irenfeus, 119 

on  Origen, 122 

on  Tertullian, 121 

on  the  Catechumens, 116 

on  the  origin  of  the  Waldenses,  .    22 
on   the  Priesthood  of  all  Chris- 


PAGS 

.  122 


Origen  on  Infant  Baptism,      .    . 

Bunsen  on,  ....         ....  123 

Neander  on, 122 

Origin  of  Infant  Baptism,  .    .         .    .  125 


Partial  immersion  and  Prof.  Robin- 


son, 


Patrick  Henry, 50,  354 

Pedobaptist  Churches  not  Mixed  Com- 


munion, 


289 


34 
221 
223 

20 
347 


tians. 


336 


the  Progress  of  his  views  on  In- 
fant Baptism, 102 

Baptism,  idea  of  the  Church,   .     .  108 
testimony  to  the  Donatists  and  re- 
ligious freedom,     20 

Nevin,  Dr., 248 

New  England  and  Religious  Liberty,    46 

TJnitarianism, 335 

Noah's  Flood  and  Baptism,     ....  167 
"  North  British  Review,"  on  the  un- 
scripturalness   of    Infant    Bap- 
tism,      80,  82,  69,  282 

on  1  Cor.  vii.  14, 97 

reforming   the  interpretation  of 

the  Bible 284 

the  grounds  of  defense  of  Infant 

Baptism, 282 

North-west  territory  made  free  from 

all  restrictions  on  conscience,  .    56 
Nullity  cannot  be  confirmed,     .    .    .275 


Occasional  Communion, 304 

One  altar  to  a  Church, 306 


Penn,  William,  on  Religious  Freedom,  42 

Petrobrussians, 24 

Philippi,  Conybeare  on, 164 

Phraseology,  Campbell  on,    .    .    .    -391 

Physician,  the  Church  a, 309 

Physician  of  souls,  381 

Pilgrim  Fathers  and  Liberty  of  Con- 
science,     

Pledges  in  Baptism, 

reciprocal  in  Baptism,  .... 
Pliny  and  Religious  Liberty,  .  .  . 
Political  Liberty  and  the  Baptists,      . 

Pond,  Dr.,  his  mistake, 146 

Pools  in  Jerusalem, 159,  160 

Position  of  various  parties,     ....  382 

Positive  precepts, 203 

Potter,  M.  de,  on  the  Waldenses,  .    .    27 

Prepositions,  their  force, 152 

Dr.  Robinson  on, 157 

and  Bajrri^o), 152,  390 

Presbyterian  statistics  of  Baptism,      .  387 
view  of  Infant  Baptism,             .     .    77 
Presbyterians  and  a  Converted  Mem- 
bership,      66 

decrease  ofinfants  Baptized  among, 

133 

and  Religious  Liberty,     .    .  31,  51,  57 

Press,  the,  in  modem  Missions,      .     .  325 

Presume,  its  meaning, 265 

Presumptions  of  Infant  Baptism,    .     .  256 

Presumptively,  a  Christian 265 

Priesthood  of  all  Christians 336 

Bunsen  on  the, 337 

Merle  D'Aubign6  on, 336 

Neander  on, 336 

Principles,  always  held  in  common,  .  312 

conceded, 15 

still  controverted, 141 

Progress  of  Converted  Membership  in 

Europe, "1 

Proselyte  Baptism, 98 

Puseyism,  cause  of,  its  success,     .     .  04 
Infant  Baptism,  its  Ci'a'lel,  .  83 


INDEX. 


421 


Ratification  of  a  Nullity  impossible,  .  275 
Reciprocal  pledges  iu  Baptism,       .     .  223 
Reconstructive  Reformation  propos- 
ed,         .     .  279 

Reformers  generally  opposed  to  Liber- 
ty of  Conscience,      31 

Rege  leration.  Baptismal.     (See  Bap- 
tismal Regeneration). 

Reinerius,  Saccho, 22 

Religion,  the  basis  of  Free  Govern- 
ment,      357 

ReMgious  Liberty  among  Mohammed- 
ans,   59 

asserted  by  Presbyterians,  ...  57 
discussed  in  Continental  Congress,  54 
early  developments  of,    ....    20 

in  Canada, 58 

in  China, 59 

in  England, 58 

in  Massachusetts  Legislature,      .    55 
in  Massachusetts  Provincial  Con- 
gress,   54 

in  the  North-west  Territory,    .    .    50 

in  Virginia, 49 

on  the  Continent, 59 

opposed  by  Augustine,      ....    20 
the    Constitution  of   the  United 
States  amended  to  favor  it,  .    .    58 

the  ^lennonites  on, 30 

the  Waldenses  on, 28 

Reserved  Rights, 354 

Revolutions  unsuccessful  without  Re- 
ligion,   358 

Rights  of  Conscience,  the  foundation 

of  all  liberty, 363 

Robinson,  John,  opposed  to  full  Liber- 
ty of  Conscience, 34 

Robinson,  Dr.,  on  the  Pools  of  Jerusa- 
lem,       159 

Robinson's     Lexicon     on     BaTrrtv^fo, 

149,  182,  183 
Roman   Catholic,  Defense  of   Infant 

Baptism, 315 

Catechumens, 116 

Missions  and  Protestant,     .  323 
change  among, 61 


Sabbath  School  System, 344 

Saccho,  Reinerius, 22 

Saceidotalism,    supported   by  Infant 

Baptism 80 

Sacraments  vitalized  by  Faith,  ...    74 
Salvation  by  Grace, 329 


PACK 

Self-government, 352 

in  Massachusetts, 352 

in  Rhode  Island, 353 

Septuagint,  use  of  BairTi^o),    ....  195 
Silence  of  Church  History  on  Infant 

Baptism, 99 

Singing,  Jewish, 341 

Sirach,  xxxi.  25, 198 

Smith,  Bishop,  of  Kentucky,  on  Im- 
mersion,    137 

Smyth,  John,  on  Liberty  of  Consci- 
ence, 1511, 35 

Socrates,  a  disciple  of, 213 

Son,  faith  in  the, 215 

Sponsors,  unscriptural, 88 

Statistics  of  Infant  Baptism,        .     .     .387 
Stoddard,  his  views  of  Ordinances,    .  261 

Strength  of  Nations, 348 

Stuart,  on  eis  after  Borrrtv^>,   ....  153 

on  Matt.  iii.  6, 156,  390 

on  Immersion, 140 

on  the   New    Testament  use  of 

Barrri^co, 183 

on   the    Prepositions  after    Ban-- 

T,-r(j 153,  390 

on  Proselyte  Baptism, ...         -99 

on  Rom.  vi.  4, 396 

on  the  force  of  the  Dative,  .    .    .391 
Historical  view  of  Baptism,     .    .  171 

Sufficiency  of  Scripture, 312 

Infant  Baptism, 315 

Summaryof  this  work, 366 

Sylvester,  Pope,  alluded   to  by  the 

Waldenses  and  Neander;      .    .    22 

Symbols  and  Faith, 308 

Synecdoche,  and  Dr.  Robinson,      .    .  182 

T 

Teacliings  of  Baptism, 209 

Tennent,  Gilbert, 66 

TertuUian,  as  to  Infant  Baptism,   .     .  121 

Bunsen  on, 121 

Neander  on, 121 

Time  occupied  by  Immersion,  .  .  .161 
Tobacco  tax,  elTect  of,  ...  .  49,  354 
Tocqueville,  JI.  de,  on  the  Bible,  .  .  314 
Tracts  for  the  Times,  quoted,  .  84,  316 
Tradition,  supported  by  Infant  Bap- 
tism,       316 

Translator  and  Interpreter,  their  re- 
spective duties, 395 

Treatise  on  Antichrist, 22 

Trench  on  the  sense  of  \oieiv,    .     .    .  168 

Tropical  use  of  words, 175 

Turkey  and  Religious  Liberty,  ...    59 
Tyler,  Dr.,  on  Dr.  Bushnell,  .     .    247, 257 


422 


INDEX. 


TJ 

PAGE 

Unconverted  Church  IMembership,  its 

effects, 330 

Unitarians  of  New  England,  ....    68 
Unitarianism  caused  by  Infant  Bap- 
tism,      334 

Universal  Church,  visible,      ....  302 
Universalist  Baptism, 218 


Virginia,  Baptists  in, 354 

religious  persecution  in,  .  .  .  .49 
abolish  persecution, 51 

Visible  and  In\'isible  Churches,  .  .  403 
Church  Universal,       302 


W 

Waldenses,  and  Religious  Liberty,    . 
Limborch's  description  of,  as  Bap- 
tists  


PAGE 

Waldenses,  M.  de  Potter  on,      ...    27 

spring  from  the  Donatists,     ...    21 

Wall,  Dr.,  his  radical  mistake,  .    .    .  100 

on  Basil 110 

Water  in  Jerusalem, 139 

much,  John,  iii.  23, 165 

"  Way  of  Life,"  Baptist, 388 

Wesley  and  Baptismal  Regeneration,     76 
John,   and    Baptismal  Regenera- 
tion,       65 

Wilberforce,  his  sons, 368 

WilUams,  Roger,  account  of,     ...     37 

Bancroft  on, 39 

the    first    Legislator    introducing 

Liberty  of  Conscience 36 

Wiseman,  Dr.,  on  Missions,   ....  323 
Words,  have  generally  various  signifi- 
cations,      146 

literal  meaning  of, 175 

figurative,  do., 176 

X 

Xavier  and  Carey, 324 


INDEX   TO   TEXTS   OF  SCRIPTURE   AXD   APOCRYPHA, 

ILLUSTRATED   IX   THIS   VOLUME. 


Gen.  IV.  26,    .    . 

2  icings,  V.  14,    ...    . 

Isaiah,  xlv.  5,    .    .    .    . 

Judith,  xii.  7 

Ecclesiasticus,  xxxiv.  25, 


Matt.  lii.  6 156 

Matt.iii.  6 393  !  Rom.  vi.  4, 

Matt.  iii.  11, 394 

Matt.  xix.  H, 95 


PAGE  ■ 

.  227 
.  195 
.  227 
.  196 
.  198 


PAGE 

.  IC8 
.     95 


Luke,  xii.  50, 
Luke,  ^-iii.  15-17, 


John,  iii.  23, 165 

Acts,  i.  5, 395 

Acts,  viii.  38, 165 

Acts,  xi.  16, 395 

Acts,  xvi.  33,  illustrated, 164 


169 


Mark,  i.  5 156 

Mark,  i.  5, 394 

Mark,  i.  9, 155 

Mark,  vii.  2,  3, 190 

Mark,  vii.  4,  8, 189,  192 

Mark,  x.  13-16. 95 

Luke,  iii.  16, •     .     .  395    1  Peter,  ii.  5,  9 337 

Luke,  xi.  38, 187    1  Peter,  iii.  20,  21, 167 


1  Cor.  vii.  14, 96 

1  Cor.  X.  2, 166 

1  Cor.  xi.  IS,  34, 303 

1  Cor.  XV.  29 224 

Col.  ii.  12,  its  true  importance,  .    170,  396 


Heb.  ix.  10, 
Heb.  X.  22, 


194 
371 


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As  a  Manual  of  ecclesiastical  principles,  doctrine,  and  discipline,  presenting  a  systematic  view  oC 
the  structure,  policy,  doctrines,  and  practices  of  Christian  churches,  as  taught  in  the  Scriptures,  as  a 
book  for  old  ami  young,  it  will  be  found  very  interesting  and  instructive,  and  as  a  book  of  reference, 
one  of  great  value.    We  wish  all  our  young  brethren  would  study  it.  —  Bap.  Eegister. 

This  has  now,  by  common  consent,  obtained  a  place  among  our  pennanent  literature  as  a  denom- 
ination.   It  is  a  book  that  should  find  a  wide  circulation  in  ihe  west.  —  Cli.  Messenger. 

The  first  edition  was  well  received.  The  author  has  been  over  every  chapter  and  line,  and  presented 
us  witli  a  new  and  tlioroughiy  revised  edition.  It  sliould  be  introduced  into  all  the  families,  and 
among  all  tlie  members  of  our  churches.  Its  influence,  in  explaining  and  enforcing  our  polity,  as 
a  denomination,  would  be  most  instructive  and  salutary.—  Phil  Ch.  Chronicle. 

The  main  positions  are  defended  with  a  vigor  and  clearness  of  argument  that  reflect  great  credit 
upon  the  bearing  and  tact  of  the  author.  There  is  an  air  of  practical  good  sense,  and  a  candor  and 
good  feeling  towards  other  denominations,  which  give  the  book  additional  value,  and  will,  undoubted- 
ly, enhance  its  usefulness.  —  BiUicul  Repository. 

Hardly  any  question  can  be  raised  with  regard  to  the  nature,  powers,  rights,  and  duties  of  a  church, 
to  the  appointment,  character,  ordination,  and  authority  of  its  officers,  to  the  articles  of  its  belief  and 
the  nature  and  proofs  of  its  positive  institutions,  to  its  government,  discipline,  and  usages,  which  ia 
not  lieru  met  by  a  distinct,  intelligent,  and  satisfactory  answer.  —Southern  Baptist. 

It  brars  the  marks  of  attention,  study,  and  great  care  in  the  arrangement  and  discussion  of  the 
numerous  topics  embraced  in  it,  and  contains  much  that  will  interest  evangelical  readers  of  every 
church. —  I'hil.  Ch.  Obserrer, 

THE    CHURCH   MEMBER'S   HAND-BOOK;   a  Plain  Guide  to  the 

Doctrines  and   Practice  of  Baptist  Ciiurclies.     By  REV.  WILLIAM  CrOWELL.     Fifth 
thousand.     18mo,  cloth,  3S  cts. 

Contents.  —  The  Ground  Work  of  Religion :  Christian  Truth :  Frame  Work  of  Religion  ;  Chris- 
tian Churches;  Memorials  of  Religion ;  Christian  Ordinances:  Symbols  of  Religion ;  Christian 
Sacraments :  Privileges  of  Religion ;  Church  Discipline  :  Life  of  Religion ;  Christian  Love,  etc. 

We  h,ive  never  met  with  a  book  of  this  size  that  contained  so  full  and  complete  a  synopsis  of  the 
doctrines  and  practice  of  the  Baptist,  or  any  other  church,  as  this.  Just  such  a  book  as  is  needed  by 
every  young  church  member.  —  Ch.  Secretary. 

It  is  concise,  clear,  and  comprehensive  ;  and,  as  an  exposition  of  ecclesiastical  principles  and  prac- 
tice, is  worthy  of  study  by  all  young  members  of  our  churches.  We  hope  it  may  be  widely  circu- 
lated, and  that  the  youthful  thousands  of  our  Israel  may  become  familiar  with  its  pages.  —  Watch- 
man and  llcjlector. 

This  is  just  Ihe  book  wanted  in  all  parts  of  our  country.  It  contains  a  condensed  but  complete 
epitome  of  all  those  things  which  come  up  in  practice,  and  on  whicli  churches  and  ministers  are  fre- 
quently called  to  aei.  — Western  Watchman. 

A  brief,  plain  guide  to  young  church  members.  We  wish  every  one  of  this  class  might  have  the 
"  Hand  Book."  Ignorance  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible  and  the  laws  of  Christ's  house  is  the  disgrace 
of  too  many,  both  of  the  young  and  old,  and  through  it  blight  and  dishonor  often  come  upon  the 
visible  church  of  God.  —  Mich.  Ch.  Herald. 

This  is  decidedly  the  best  treatise  that  has  ever  come  under  our  notice.  —  Indian  Advocate. 

Its  doctrinal  views  would  tend  to  stability,  as  its  practical  suggestions  would  to  spiritual  life.  Its 
hints  and  rules  on  rights,  duties,  disciphne,  business,  and  order,  if  duly  observed,  would  contribut« 
greatly  to  the  peace,  purity,  and  efficiency  of  our  churches.  —  jV.  Y.  Recorder.  XJu 


WORKS    ON    BAPTISM. 

THE  MODE  AND  SUBJECTS  OF  BAPTISM.  By  Milo  P.  Jew 
ETT,  A.  M.,  late  Minister  of  tlie  Presbyterian  Church,  and  Professor  in  Marietta  College. 
Twelfth  tJiou«and.     Cloth,  25  cts. 

*,*  There  continues  a  steady  demand  for  this  valuable  and  increasingly  popular  book.  Its  che:ip- 
ness  puts  it  within  the  reach  of  all,  and  giving,  as  it  does,  a  simple,  yet  concise  account  of  the  "  Pmg- 
ress  in  Error,  and  Discovery  of  the  Truth,"  of  a  prominent  Presbyterian  clergyman  and  distinguished 
Professor  in  "  Marietta  College,"  it  is  just  the  book  to  piit  iuto  the  hands  of  any  one  seeking  after 
truth  on  the  subject  of  Baptism.  Multitudes  who,  owing  to  prejudice,  early  education,  etc.,  have 
been  perplexed  and  in  doubt  on  the  subject,  will  have  occasion  to  be  grateful  for  the  perusal  of  tliis 
work  in  conuection  witli  the  Bible,  as  the  means  of  enUghteniug  and  settling  their  minds  in  the  truth. 

Jiev.  J.  E.  Graves,  editor  of  the  Tenne.tsee  Baptist,  in  a  recent  number  of  his  paper,  says, "  AVho  will 
write  tlie  history  of  one  little  Jewctt  on  Ba2^tism  ?  Hundreds  in  our  land  have  been  converted  to  the 
truth  by  perusing  that  book.  Remington,  an  able  Methodist  preacher,  read  that  work  ;  it  resulted 
in  his  conversion  —  he  wrote  ?iis, '  reasons,'  and  they  converted  another  preacher,  and  the  pebble  thus 
thrown  by  Bro.  Jewett  in  the  sea  of  mind,  produced  a  wave  which  produced  another,  and  tliMS  in 
long  succession  they  will  travel  on,  each  producing  its  successor  until  tliey  break  on  the  shores  of 
eternity.  Is  the  object  not  a  commendable  one?  It  is  pouring  oil  upon  the  unresting  wave  of  reli- 
gious mind,  lashed  by  angry  discussions.  Sucli  books  read  in  solitude  with  one's  Bible  and  his  God, 
will  hush  the  tempest  of  his  own  soul  to  rest." 

CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM ;  with  many  Quotations  from  Pcdobaptist  au- 
thors. By  Ado.mram  Judson,  D.  D.  New  edition,  revised  and  enlarged.  Cloth, 
18mo,  25  cts. 

•,*  Several  large  editions,  in  pamphlet  form,  were  many  years  since  published  in  this  country  in 
rapid  succession;  and  although  frequent  calls  have  been  made  for  copies,  it  has  been  for  a  long  time 
"out  of  print."  The  venerable  author,  during  his  late  visit  to  this  country,  took  occasion  to  thorough- 
ly revise  and  enlarge  the  work,  and  it  is  now,  for  the  first  time,  published  in  regular  book  form.  It 
will  doubtless  be  sought  for  and  read  witli  interest  by  all,  deemed,  as  it  is,  by  those  capable  of  judging, 
one  of  the  best  works  on  the  subject  of  Baptism  extant. 

The  Christian  Revieiv  says,  "  It  is  a  clear,  calm,  and  convincing  view  of  the  futility  of  the  distin- 
guishing points  of  Pedobaptism,  and  a  rational  and  scriptural  defence  of  the  baptism  of  persons  of 
suitable  age  and  qualifications,  and  in  the  manner  prescribed  in  the  New  Testament. 

ESSAY  ON  CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM.  By  the  Rev.  Baptist  W.  Noel. 

IGnio,  cloth,  60  cts. 

BIBLE  BAPTISM.     A  beautiful  Steel  Engraving. 

In  the  centre  of  this  splendid  work  of  art,  (nine  by  twelve  inches  in  size,)  is  represented  a  Church, 
a  Baptismal  Scene,  &c.,  and  in  tlie  margin  are  arranged  all  the  texts  of  Scripture,  found  in  the  New 
Testament,  alluding  to  the  subject  of  Baptism,  which  not  only  renders  it  very  convenient  for  reftr- 
cnre,  but  as  a  whole  is  truly  an  elegant  ornamental  picture  for  the  pai'lor.  Printed  on  thick  fine 
paper  for  framing.    Price,  25  cts. 


CHRISTIANITY  DEMONSTRATED  :  in  four  distinct  and  independ- 
ent Series  of  Proofs.  With  an  explanation  of  the  Types  and  Prophecies  concerning  the 
Messiah.     By  Rev.  IIarvey  Newcomb.     lOnio,  cloth,  75  cts. 

BUCK'S  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE;  a  Treatise  in  which  the'Na- 
tiire.  Evidences,  and  Advantages  are  considered.  By  Rev.  C.  Buck,  London.  12nio, 
cloth,  50. 

ANTIOCH ;  or,  Increase  of  Moral  Power  in  the  Church  of  Christ.  By 
P.  Church,  D.  D.    With  an  Essay,  by  Baron  Stow,  D.  I).     18nio,  cloth,  50  cts. 

MY  PROGRESS  IN  ERROR  AND  RECOVERY  TO  TRUTH; 
or,  a  Tour  throujh  Universalism,  Unitarianistn,  and  Scepticism.  Second  thousand. 
}8nio,  cloth,  63  cts.  Ss 


HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  BxVPTIST  MISSIONS 

In  Asia,  Africa,  Europe,  and  North  America,  from  their  earliest  Commence- 
ment tu  tlie  Present  Time.  Prepared  uniler  llie  direction  of  llie  American  Baptist 
fllissioNARY  Union.  By  Prof.  William  Cammell,  Brown  University  Wiih 
seven  Maps.    Seventh  tliousand.     12nio,  clotli,  75  cts. 

03"  III  order  to  give  this  work  the  widest  circulation,  placing  it  within  the  means  o/all,  the  TRICE, 
which  would  okdinakily  be  $l,li5,  is  put  at  the  low  sum  qf  seventu-five  cents! 

Extract  from  the  Certificate  of  Rev.  Drs.  Cone,  Sharp,  and  Chase,  Committee  appointed 
by  the  JUissionury  Union  to  ciaminc  the  IVork. 
The  undersigned,  having  been  requested  by  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Missionary  Union  to 
read,  in  manuscript,  Prof.  Gammell's  History  of  American  Baptist  Missions,  are  liappy  to  state  tliat, 
ill  our  opinion,  the  worlc  is  well  adapted  to  accomplish  the  important  purposes  for  which  it  was  written. 
Such  a  history  we  thinic  to  be  much  needed,  and  wortliy  of  being  read  by  all.  It  exhibits  gratify- 
ing evidence  of  research,  fidelity,  and  skill.  It  sets  before  the  reader,  in  a  lucid  manner,  facts  that 
should  never  be  forgotten.  Some  of  them,  iu  power  to  awaken  attention  and  touch  the  heart,  could 
Boarcely  be  surpassed  by  fiction. 

Testimony  of  Missionaries  who  have  long-  labored  in  the  Fields  concerning  which  the  Book  treats. 

Rev.  J.  H.  Vinton  says,  "  I  am  so  much  interested  in  the  circulation  of  Prof.  GamraeU's  History  of 

Missions,  that  I  am  resolved  to  give  away  every  Jifih  copy.     Could  it  be  put  in  tlie  hands  of  every 

man  in  the  denomination,  able  to  pay  for  it,  you  might  then  almost  dispense  with  all  other  agencies." 

Rev.  S.  31.  Osgood  says,  "  I  read  this  History  with  great  interest,  and,  having  been  for  more  than 
twelve  years  connected  with  the  Mission  in  Burmah,  am  happy  to  bear  decided  testimony  to  its  au- 
thenticity. AVe  have  long  needed  just  such  a  work  —  a  work  not  only  intrinsically  valuable  as  a  Ai's- 
torif,  but  written  in  a  style  suthciently  attractive  to  insvjy:  its  hcing  read,  not  only  by  pastors,  but 
by  the  members  of  our  church  and  friends  of  missions,  young  and  old." 

Rer.  E.  Kincaid  says,  "  As  I  have  labored  more  or  less  at  all  the  stations  in  Burmali,  I  could  but 
admire  the  singular  accuracy  with  which  all  the  leading  facts  of  these  missions  are  detailed  in  Prof. 
Gammell's  History  of  American  Baptist  Missions.  I  have  not  found  a  single  error  of  any  importance." 

Rev.  J.  Wade  says,  "I  can  most  cordially  recommend  it  to  the  public  as  being  a  very  trutliful  and 
■well-written  work." 

A  Specimen  of  a  great  JVitmher  of  JVoticr:s  of  the  Press. 

The  reader  is  borne  along  from  chapter  to  chaper  with  a  narrative  which,  while  it  fully  satisfies  his 
desire  to  know,  commends  itself  as  entirely  truthful  and  trustworthy.  Let  pastors,  friends  of  mis- 
sions, agents,  and  colporteurs,  scatter  it  by  thousands.  Like  bread  cast  upon  the  waters,  it  will  come 
back  in  prayers  and  blessings.     No  Baptist  family  should  be  without  it.  —  JV.  Y.  Recorder. 

Prof.  Gammell  lias  here  furnished  a  book  that  was  actually  demanded  by  the  church.  A  work  of 
thrilling  interest,  every  word  of  which  may  be  regarded  as  reliable.  —  Ch.  Secretary. 

This  is  a  book  which  pays  well  for  the  reader.  The  incidents  connected  with  the  first  labors  of  the 
American  missionaries  in  India  are  in  this  volume  very  graphically  narrated.  The  history  is  written 
in  a  catholic  spirit,  and  we  commend  it  to  all  who  love  the  cause  of  missions.  —  Congregationalist. 

In  point  of  style,  it  is  chaste  and  elegant.  It  rejects  all  rhetorical  embellishments,  and,  where  the 
narrative  is  most  exciting,  its  flow  is  still  calm  and  dispassionate.  Prof.  Gammell  deserves  our  liigh 
regard,  also,  for  the  kindly  spirit  in  which  he  has  brought  out  this  monument  to  the  philanthropy  of 
his  denomination.  The  most  generous  notice  is  uniformly  taken  of  the  missionaries  of  other  sects, 
and  the  ashes  of  buried  controversy  are  in  every  instance  left  undisturbed.  In  fine,  the  hook  is  emi- 
nently a  Christian  one,  and  higher  praise  than  this  we  know  not  how  to  give.  —  North  Am.  Review. 

We  hope  that  every  Christian  family  will  have  a  copy  of  this  work.  The  History  of  the  American 
Baptist  Missions  are  fully,  accurately,  and  elegantly  sketched,  and  judiciously  arranged  ;  which  is  all 
that  was  required  to  make  one  of  the  most  interesting  books  of  tlie  age.  —  Mich.  Ch.  Herald. 

We  have  rarely  read  a  work  of  so  unabating  and  thrilling  interest  as  the  one  before  us.  It  is  writ- 
ten in  a  clear  and  graceful  stylo,  and  abounds  in  incidents  of  moral  courage  and  Christian  heroism 
to  which  every  thing  in  the  range  o{  fiction  seems  tame  and  insipid.  —  Western  Lit.  Messenger. 

A  copy  should  be  in  every  family.  —  Phil.  Ch.  Chronicle. 

We  welcome  with  unfeigned  pleasure  this  new  contribution  to  the  literature  of  Christian  missions. 
For  its  phin  and  execution,  and  for  the  interest  which  it  gathers  around  subjects  in  themselves  deeply 
interesting  and  truly  sublime,  it  will  be  attractive  no  less  to  the  readers  of  general  literature,  than 
those  who  approve  and  love  the  work  of  missions.  —  Baptist  Missionary  Magazine. 

Every  page  would  convey  to  the  mind  of  one  who  is  an  utter  stranger  to  our  miisioni,  internal 
•vidence  of  truthfulness.  We  trust  that  the  volume  will  be  widely  read,  and  increase  th«  fruits  of 
missionary  leal,  an  hundred  fold.  —  IVatehman  and  Refiector.  Xt 


VALUABLE    AYORKS. 


TlIE  SUFFERINGr  SAVIOUR  ;  ok,  ^SLeditations  on  the  Last  Days 
OF  CiiKlST.  By  Fked.  W.  Krummachsr,  D.D.,  Chaplain  to  the  King  of  Prussia, 
and  author  of'  Elijah  the  Tishbite,"  "  JLast  Days  of  Elisha,"  '•  The  Martyr  Lamb,'' 
etc.  etc.  Translated  under  the  express  sanction  of  the  autlior,  by  SAiiuKi  JacK" 
SON.    12nio,  cloth.    §1.25. 

The  leading  article  in  a  recent  number  of  the  New  York  Independent  is  wholly  de- 
voted to  the  subject  of  this  worli.  Kespectiug  the  work  itself  and  its  author,  it  speaks 
as  follows : 

"  It  13  refreshing  at  times  to  meet  ■with  one  who  views  the  work  of  Christ  from  the  emotional 
Btand-point»  without  immediate  reference  either  to  the  dialectic  or  the  practical.  Such,  in  an  emi- 
nent degree,  is  Krumraacher  —  the  Krummacherof  Elijah,  the  Tishbite.'  A  series  of  meditations 
from  his  pen  on  the  last  days  of  Christ  upon  earth  has  just  appeared  under  the  title  of  '  The  Suffer- 
ing Saviour.'  The  style  of  the  author  need  not  be  described  to  those  who  have  read  his  '  Elijah ;'  and 
whoever  has  not  read  an  evangelical  book  of  our  own  time  that  has  passed  through  many  editions 
in  Gorman,  English,  French,  Dutch,  Danish,  had  better  order  the  Chinese  edition,  which  has 
recently  appealed.  »  »  •  We  like  the  book  —  LOVE  it,  rather  —  for  the  vivid  perception  and 
fervid  emotion  with  which  it  brings  us  to  the  Suffering  Saviour."  ' 

"  Krunimacher  is  himself  again  !  Till  the  present  work  appeared,  he  had  done  nothing  equal  to 
his  first  one, '  Elijah,  the  Tishbite.'  We  felt  that  the  productions  which  he  gave  to  the  world  during 
the  interval  were  scarcely  up  to  the  mark.  In  the  present  he  comes  upon  the  literary  firmament  in 
his  old  fire  and  glory,  *  like  a  re-appearing  star.*  The  translator  has  done  his  work  admirably.  *  ♦  » 
Much  of  the  narrative  is  given  with  thrilling  vividness,  and  pathos,  and  beauty.  Marking  as  we 
proceeded,  several  passages  for  quotation,  we  found  them  in  the  end  so  numerous,  that  we  must  refer 
the  reader  to  the  work  itself."  — News  of  the  Churches  (Scottish). 

"All  those  characteristics  which  made  '  Elijah,  the  Tishbite,'  so  deservedly  popular,  —  as,  due 
appreciation  of  the  sulyect  ;  a  comprehensive  treatment,  which,  while  it  embraces  a  grand  whole, 
neglects  not  even  the  minutest  details  ;  fertility  of  illustration  ;  and  earnest  and  impressive  lessons 
inculcated  by  the  way,  and  in  affectionate  tertns,  —  all  re-appear  in  the  present  work,  which,  so  far, 
it  least,  as  concerns  the  dignity  of  its  subject,  is  of  infinitely  greater  importance  to  us  than  its  prede- 
cessor."—Bkitish  Ceitic. 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  BAPTIST  PRINCIPLES  IN  THE  LAST 
IIUXDRED  YEARS.  By  T.  F.  Curtis,  Professor  of  Theology  in  Lewisburg 
University,  Pa.,  and  author  of  "  Communion,"'  etc.  12mo,  clotli.  $1.25. 
This  work  is  divided  into  three  books.  The  first  exhibits  the  progress  of  Baptist 
principles,  now  conceded  in  theory  by  the  most  enlightened  of  other  denominations. 
Tlie  second  presents  a  view  of  the  progress  of  principles  still  controverted. 
The  third  sets  forth  the  progress  of  principles  always  held  by  Evangelical  Chris- 
tians, but  more  consistently  by  Baptists. 

It  is  a  work  tliat  invites  the  candid  consideration  of  all  denominations.  In  his 
preface  the  author  says :  "If,  in  a  single  Hue  of  the  following  pages,  there  should 
appear  to  the  reader  the  slightest  unkind  allusion  to  any  other  denomination  or  indi- 
vidual, the  writer  would  at  once  say  that  nothing  has  been  further  from  his  inten- 
tions or  feelings.  *  *  *  His  aim  has  been  to  draw  a  wide  distinction  between  parties 
and  opinions.  Hence  the  object  of  this  volume  is  not  to  exhibit  or  defend  the  Bajv 
tists,  but  their  principles."' 

"  The  principles  referred  to  are  such  as  these  :  Freedom  of  Conscience  and  Separation  ol 
Church  and  Sfate  ;  a  Converted  Church  Membership  ;  Sacraments  inoperative  without  Choice  and 
Faith  ;  Believers  the  only  Scriptural  Subjects  of  Baptism  ;  Immersion  always  the  Baptism  of  the 
Xew  Testament  ;  Infant  Baptism  Injurious  ;  Open  Communion  Unwise  and  Injurious.  To  show 
the  progress  of  these  principles,  statistics  are  given,  from  which  we  learn  that  in  1792  there  was  but 
one  Baptist  Communicant  in  the  United  States  to  every  fifty -six  inhabitants,  while  in  18.34  there  was 
one  to  every  thirty  inhabitants.  The  Baptists  have  more  than  one  quarter  of  the  whole  Church 
accommodation  in  the  United  States.  •  •  '  The  entire  work  is  written  with  ability  and  unfaiUng 
good  temper."- Qcaeterlt  Jocksal  of  Americas  Uxitaeiax  Association 

"  We  know  of  no  man  in  our  Churches  better  fitted  to  prepare  a  fair  exhibition  of  '  Baptist  Prin- 
ciples.' lie  is  no  controversialist ;  and  his  discussions  are  in  most  refreshing  contrast  with  many, 
both  of  Baptist  defenders  and  their  opponents."  —  Southekn  Baptist. 

"  T'.  .  --r^  of  the  work  is  important,  the  plan  ingenious,  yet  simple  and  natural,  the  author's  pre- 
par  •  apparently  thorough  and  conscientious,  and  his  spirit  excellent."- Watchmait  asd 

l;i:i 

"  J  lie  /inid  temper  of  the  author  of  this  volume  is  obvious,  the  method  of  arranging  his  materials 
for  effect  admirable."  — Pkesbyteki AN. 

"  The  work  exhibits  ample  learning,  vigorous  argumentative  power,  and  an  excellent  spirit  toward 
those  whose  views  it  controverts.  Apart  from  its  t'ueological  bearings,  it  possesses  not  a  little  histori- 
cal interest."— NEW  YoEK  Teiboe, 

(r) 


IMPORTANT    NE^y    WOP.KS. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  :    Social  and  Individual.     By  Peter  Bayne,  A,  M. 

12mo.     Cloth.     $1.25. 

Contents.  — Faut  I.  Statement.  I.  The  Individual  Life.  II.  The  Social  Life. 
Part  II.  E.xposition  and  Illustration.  Book  I.  Christianity  the  Basis  of 
Social  Life.  I.  First  Principles.  II.  Howard;  and  the  rise  of  Philanthropy.  III. 
Wilberforce ;  and  the  development  of  Philanthropy.  IV.  Biidgett;  the  Christian 
Freeman.  V.  Thesocialproblemof  theage,  and  one  or  two  hints  towards  its  solution. 
Book  II.  Clcristianity  the  Basis  of  Individual  Character.  1.  Introductory :  a  few 
Words  on  ilodern  Doubt.  II.  John  Foster.  III.  Thomas  Arnold.  IV.  Thomaa 
Chalmers.  Part  III.  Outlook.  I.  The  Positive  Philosophy.  II.  Pantheistic 
Spiritualism.    III.  General  Conclusion. 

Particular  attention  is  invited  to  this  work.  In  Scotland,  its  publication,  during 
the  last  winter,  produced  a  great  sensation.  Hugh  Miller  made  it  the  subject  of  an 
elaborate  review  in  his  paper,  the  Edinburgh  Witness,  and  gave  his  readers  to  under- 
standl^iat  it  was  an  extraordinary  work.  The  "  Ncics  of  the  Chiirchts,"  the  monthly 
organ  of  the  Scottish  Free  Church,  was  equally  emphatic  in  its  praise,  pronouncing 
it  "  the  religious  book  of  the  season."  Strikingly  original  in  plan  and  brilliant  in 
execution,  it  far  surpasses  the  expectations  raised  by  the  somewhat  familiar  title.  It 
is,  in  truth,  a  bold  onslaught  (and  the  first  of  the  kind)  upon  the  Pantheism  of  Carlyle, 
Fichte,  etc.,  by  an  ardent  admirer  of  Carlyle;  and  at  the  same  time  an  exhibition  of 
the  Christian  Life,  in  its  inner  principle,  and  as  illustrated  in  the  lives  of  Howard 
Wilberforce,  Budgett,  Foster,  Chalmers,  etc.  The  brilliancy  and  vigor  of  the  author  s 
style  are  remarkable. 

PATRIARCHY;  or,  tlie  Family,  its  Constitution  and  Probation.  By  John 
Harris,  D.  D.,  President  of  "  New  College,"  London,  and  author  of  "  The 
Great  Teacher,"  "  Mammon,"  "  Pre-AJamite  Earth,"  "  5Ian  Primeval,"  etc. 
12mo.     Cloth.     $1.25. 

This  is  the  third  and  last  of  a  series,  by  the  same  author,  entitled  "  Contributions 
to  Theological  Science."  The  plan  of  this  series  is  highly  original,  and  thus  far  has 
been  most  successfullj' executed.  Of  the  first  two  in  the  series,  "  Pre-Adamite  Earth," 
and  "  Man  Primeval,"  we  have  already  issued  four  and  five  editions,  and  the  demand 
still  continues.  The  immense  sale  of  all  Dr.  Harris's  works  attest  their  intrinsic 
popularity.  The  present  work  has  long  been  expected,  but  was  delayed  owing  to  the 
author's  illness,  and  the  pressure  of  his  duties  as  President  of  New  College,  St.  John's 
Wood.  We  shall  issue  it  from  advanced  sheets  (a  large  portion  of  which  have  already 
been  received)  simultaneously  with  its  publication  in  England. 

GOD  REVEALED  IN  NATURE  AND  IN  CHRIST:  Including  a  Refutation 
of  the  Development  Theory  contained  in  the  "  Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History 
of  Creation."  By  the  Author  of  "  The  Philosophy  of  the  Plan  of  Sal- 
vation."    12mo.     Cloth.     $1.25. 

The  author  of  that  remarkable  book,  "The  Philosophy  of  the  Plan  of  Salvation," 
has  devoted  several  years  of  incessant  labor  to  the  preparation  of  this  work.  Without 
being  specifically  controversial,  its  aim  is  to  overthrow  several  of  the  popular  errors 
of  the  day,  by  establishing  the  antagonist  truth  upon  an  impregnable  basis  of  reason 
and  logic.  In  opposition  to  the  doctrine  of  a  mere  subjective  revelation,  now  so 
plausibly  inculcated  by  certain  eminent  writers,  it  demonstrates  the  necessity  of  an 
external,  objective  revelation.  Especially,  it  furnishes  a  new,  and  as  it  is  conceived, 
a  conclusive  argument  against  the  "  development  theory  "  so  ingeniously  maintained 
in  the  "  Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History  of  Creation."  As  this  author  does  not  pub- 
lish except  when  he  has  something  to  say,  there  is  good  reason  to  anticipate  that  the 
woi-k  will  be  one  of  unusual  interest  and  value.  His  former  book  has  met  with  the 
most  signal  success  in  both  hemispheres,  having  passed  through  numerous  editions 
in  England  and  Scotiana,  and  been  translated  into  four  of  the  European  languages 
besides.    It  is  also  about  to  be  translated  into  the  Hindoostanee  tousue.  (m) 


HYMN    BOOKS. 


THE  PSALMIST  ;  a  New  Collection  of  Htmxs  for  the  Use  of  the  Bap- 
tist Cliurches.    By  BARON   STOW  and  S.   F.   SMITH : 

Assisted  by  W.  R.  Williams,  N.  Y. ;  Geo.  B.  Ide,  Pa. ;  R.  W.  Giiswold,  N.  Y. ;  S.  P. 
Hill,  Md. ;  J.  B.  Taylor,  Va. ;  J.  L.  Dagg,  Ala. ;  W.  T.  Brantley,  S.  C. ;  R.  B.  C.  Howell, 
Ten. ;  Samuel  VV.  Lynd,  Ky.,  and  John  M.  Peck,  III.  With  Supplement,  containing  a 
variety  of  Chants,  and  Selections  of  Scripture  for  Chanting. 

Pulpit  edition,  12rao,  (large  type,)  Turkey  morocco,  gilt  edges,  3,00  i  morocco  gilt,  1,75;  plain  mo- 
rocco, 1,50  ;  sheep,  1,25. 

Pew  edition.,  18ino,  sheep,  75  cts. ;  morocco,  1,00;  morocco,  gilt,  1,25;  Turkey  morocco,  gilt,  2,63. 

Pocket  edition,  32mo,  sheep,  50  cts. ;  morocco,  plain,  75  cts. ;  morocco,  gilt,  83  cts. ;  embossed  moroc- 
co, gilt  edges,  1,00 ;  tucks,  gilt,  1,25;  Turkey  morocco,  1,50. 

THE  PSALMIST;  WITH  SUPPLEMENT.  Containing  an  additional 
Selection  of  more  titan  one  hundred  Hymns,  (in  place  of  the  Chants  and  Selections  for 
Chanting.)  By  Richard  Fuller  and  J.  B.  Jeter.  Same  sizes,  styles  of  binding,  and 
prices,  of  tlie  other  editiuit. 

10-  The  Psalmist  is,  unquestionably,  the  best  collection  of  Hymns  in  the  English  Language.  It 
has  been  almost  universally  introduced  into  tlie  Baptist  churches  throughout  the  United  States,  and 
also  iu  the  British  Provinces,  and  supijlies  have  been  ordered  for  London. 

The  united,  and  unsolicited  testimony  of  pastors  of  the  Baptist  churches  in  Boston  and  vicinity, 
New  York,  and  Philadelphia,  of  the  most  decided  and  flattering  character,  has  been  given  in  favor 
of  the  book.  Also,  by  the  Professors  in  Hamilton  Literary  and  Theological  Institution,  and  the  New- 
ton Theological  Institution.  The  same,  also,  has  been  done  by  a  great  number  of  clergymen,  church- 
es, associations,  conventions,  etc.,  in  every  State  of  the  Union.  So  that  it  not  only  may  be  said  to  have 
been  sanctioned  6i/,  but  become  </ie  Hvux  Book  of,  the  Baptist  Dexominatiox. 

The  work  contains  nearly  thirteen  hundred  choice  htmxs,  original  and  selected,  by  one  hundred 
and  seventy-two  of  the  most  celebrated  writers  of  the  present,  as  well  as  past  times,  (allowing  Watta 
the  authorship  of  about  one  third  of  the  whole  number,)  besides  pieces  credited  to  forty-five  collec- 
tions of  hymns  or  other  works,  the  authorship  of  which  is  unknown.  Forty-five  are  anonymous,  be- 
ing traced  neither  to  authors  nor  collections. 

Two  sets  of  stereotype  plates  have  been  worn  out  in  printing  the  Peir  edition  of  the  work,  and  the 
publishers  have  just  been  at  great  expense  in  procuring  from  the  Boston  Stereotype  Foundry  a  new 
and  elegant  Electrotype  set  of  plates,  giving  an  impression  equal  to  copperplate,  with  an  enlarge- 
ment of  the  Scripture  Ixdex,  and  the  addition  (to  the  Index  of  First  Lines  of  Hymns  previously 
given)  of  anI.VDEX  of  First  Lines  of  each  verse  in  the  book,  the  great  advantage  of  which 
must  at  once  be  seen  by  those  who  frequently  wish  to  quote,  or  refer  to  some  particular  verse,  or  iind 
some  hymn  containing  the  same,  and  can  remember  only  a  line  or  two  of  that  one  stanza. 

The  Sl'pplemext,  occupying  the  place  of  the  Chants  of  the  other  edition,  which,  in  many  sectioni 
of  the  country,  are  seldom  if  ever  used,  was  undertaken  by  Rev.  Messrs.  Fuller  and  Jeter,  at  the 
•olicitation  of  friends  at  the  South. 

"  The  Psalmist,  (say  they  in  their  preface,)  contains  a  copious  supply  of  excellent  hymns  for  the 
pulpit.  We  are  acquainted  with  no  collection  of  hymns,  combining  in  an  equal  degree  poetic  merit, 
evangelical  sentiment,  and  a  rich  variety  of  subjects,  with  a  happy  adaptation  to  pulpit  services. 
Old  soncs,  like  old  friends,  are  more  valuable  than  new  ones.  A  number  of  the  hymns  best  known, 
most  valued,  and  most  frequently  sung  in  the  South,  are  not  found  in  the  Psalmist  Without  them 
no  hymn  bool-.  vbatever  may  be  its  excellences,  is  likely  to  become  generally  or  permanently  popu- 
larin  that  regie        To  supply  this  deficiency  is  the  object  of  the  Supplement. 

"  The  hymns  u.'  .  been  mostly  selected,  not  on  account  of  their  poetic  beauty,  but  their  established 
popularity.  They  will,  we  think,  be  found  not  seriously  defective  as  metrical  compositions ;  but  their 
chief  excellence  consists  in  their  adaptation  to  interest  and  affect  the  heart.  If  we  are  not  deceived, 
they  will  form  an  acceptable  appendix  to  the  Psalmist.  Adapted  chiefly  to  social  worship,  they  will, 
we  trust,  contribute  greatly  to  the  interest  and  profit  of  our  prayer  and  protracted  meetings. 

"  Though  this  selection  has  been  made  with  special  reference  to  the  taste  and  wants  of  the  South, 
we  know  no  reason  why  it  should  not  be  acceptable  to  other  portions  of  the  country." 

WINCHELL'S    "WATTS,  with  a  Supplement.  12mo,  sheep,  50  cts. 

WATTS    AND    RIPPON.     18mo,  sheep,  88  cts.     32mo,  sheep,  55 i  cts. 

Vv 


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